magazine :: Electronics :: Electronics V47 N26 19741226

DECEMBER 26, 1974
Bell Labs: does it live up to its reputation?/51
European equipment and components market forecast chart/81
Sixteen-bit microprocessor chip minimizes parts count/87

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2 Circle 2 onreader service card Electronics/December 26, 1974

23

45

51

65

87

109

Electronics

The International Magazine of Electronics Technology

Electronics Review

SOLID STATE: Rockwell shelves commercial SOS device activity, 23
Gain is up, size is down in new bipolar process, 23

MEMORY: Small package gaining favor in 4,096-bit RAMs, 24

Density could be increased by bubble-memory lattice, 25

MILITARY: Army seeks first-round artillery-locating capability, 25
CONSUMER: More TV receivers to get digital tuning, 26
INSTRUMENTS: Simple components measure microwave parameters, 28
NEWS BRIEFS: 28

AVIONICS: Ground warning system stirs heat but not sales, 30
COMMUNICATIONS: Europe getting its first high-speed digital line, 32

Electronics International
JAPAN: Hitachi brightens color-television tubes, 45
AROUND THE WORLD: 45

Probing the News

COMMUNICATIONS: Does Bell Labs live up to its billing? 51
MEMORIES: Josephson devices inch ahead, 55

COMMERCIAL ELECTRONICS: Behind the scenes at Disney World, 58
INSTRUMENTATION: Air monitoring grows complex, 62

Special Report: European markets

Overview, 65 Spain, 76

West Germany, 66 Belgium, 77

United Kingdom, 68 Switzerland, 78

France, 71 Denmark, 79

Italy, 73 Norway, 79

The Netherlands, 74 Finland, 80

Sweden, 75 Market forecast chart, 81

Technical Articles

MICROPROCESSORS: Single-chip CPU uses 8- or 16-bit words, 87
DESIGNER'S CASEBOOK: Counter uses cheap calculator chip, 96
Modified window comparator compensates for temperature, 97
Timer pulse widths range from seconds to hours, 99

ENGINEER'S NOTEBOOK: Counting microprocessor interrupts, 102
Simple step-function generator aids in testing instruments, 103
Timer IC and photocell can vary LED brightness, 105

New Products

IN THE SPOTLIGHT: Programable calculator priced at $395, 109
Pushing C-MOS RAM density to 1,024 bits cuts price, power, 111
COMPONENTS: Logic can drive electromechanical relay directly, 112
SEMICONDUCTORS: Microcomputers stress |/O capabilities, 114
DATA HANDLING: Signal processor is fast, flexible, 118
PACKAGING & PRODUCTION: Marking 16,000 DIPs an hour, 120

Departments

Publisher's letter, 4
Readers comment, 7
Meetings, 8

People, 14

Electronics newsletter, 19
Washington newsletter, 39
Washington commentary, 40
International newsletter, 47
Engineer's newsletter, 106
New literature, 125

Electronics/December 26, 1974

Vol. 47, No. 26 » December 26, 1974

Highlights

Cover: Inflation troubles European markets, 65

The 1975 outlook for electronics in Europe
is ‘‘cautious,. . . not pessimistic.’’ If a mar-
ket does poorly in one country, it may do
well in another, averaging out to an essen-
tially flat year in real terms. Exceptions are
sales of minicomputers, which will surge,
and of color TV sets, which will drop. Cover
is by designer Ann Dalton.

The electronic magic of Walt Disney World, 58
Behind many of the fantasies in Florida’s
Disney World are computers, which control
animated figures and roller-coaster rides
and will soon be running an ambitious
people-mover. Other electronic equipment
will also star in the House of Future Living.

Single-chip processor uses 16-bit words, 87
Because the PACE microprocessor employs
a 16-bit word length for memory addresses,
for instructions, and (optionally) for data
processing, it can handle complex appli-
cations faster and with simpler programing
than earlier one-chip processors having
only 8-bit words.

C-MOS technology yields its first 1-k memory, 111
A very low standby power of 10 nanowatts
makes the first 1-kilobit complementary-
MOS random-access memory an attractive
answer to the volatility problem—a low-
power battery is the only backup required.

And in the nextissue. . .
Electronics’ 17th annual forecast of the U.S.
markets . . . reading between the lines of
C-MOS specifications.

Electronics

EDITOR-IN-CHIEF: Kemp Anderson

EXECUTIVE EDITOR: Samuel Weber

MANAGING EDITORS: Lawrence Curran, News;

Arthur Erikson, /nternational

SENIOR EDITORS: John Johnsrud,
H. Thomas Maguire, Laurence Altman,
Ray Connolly, Stephen E. Scrupski

ART DIRECTOR: Fred Sklenar

ASSOCIATE EDITORS: Howard Wolff,
Gerald M. Walker, Alfred Rosenblatt

DEPARTMENT EDITORS
Aerospace/ Military: Ray Connolly
Circuit Design: Wallace B. Riley
Communications & Microwave:

Stephen E. Scrupski
Components: Lucinda Mattera
Computers: Wallace B. Riley
Consumer: Gerald M. Walker
Industrial: Margaret A. Maas
Instrumentation: Andy Santoni
New Products: H. Thomas Maguire,

Michael J. Riezenman
Packaging & Production: Jerry S. Lyman
Solid State: Laurence Altman

COPY EDITORS: Margaret Eastman,
Everett C. Terry, Bill Dunne

ART: Charles D. Ciatto, Associate Director
Patricia Cybulski, Assistant Director

PRODUCTION EDITOR: Arthur C. Miller

EDITORIAL SECRETARIES: Janet Noto,
Julie Gorgoglione, Penny Roberts

FIELD EDITORS

Boston: Gail Farrell (Mgr.), Pamela Leven

Los Angeles: Paul Franson (Mgr.)

Midwest: Larry Armstrong (Mgr.)

New York: Ron Schneiderman (Mgr.)

San Francisco: Bernard Cole (Mgr.)
Judith Curtis

Washington: Ray Connolly (Mgr.)
Larry Marion

Frankfurt: John Gosch

London: William F. Arnold

Paris: Arthur Erikson

Tokyo: Charles Cohen

McGRAW-HILL WORLD NEWS

Director: Ralph R. Schulz

Bonn: Robert Ingersoll

Brussels: James Smith

London: Marvin Petal

Madrid: Dom Curcio

Milan: Peter Hoffmann, Andrew Heath
Moscow: Peter Gall

Paris: Michael Johnson, Richard Shepherd
Stockholm: Robert Skole

Tokyo: Mike Mealey

PUBLISHER: Dan McMillan

DIRECTOR OF MARKETING: Pierre J. Braudé

ADVERTISING SALES SERVICE MANAGER:
Wallis Clarke

BUSINESS MANAGER: Stephen R. Weiss
CIRCULATION MANAGER: Nancy L. Merritt

MARKETING SERVICES MANAGER:
Tomlinson Howland

RESEARCH MANAGER: Margery D. Sholes

ith the prolifera-

tion of electronics
into more and more
applications, why
should the realm of
fantasy—even the
real-life fantasy of
Walt Disney World—
be an exception?
Now, visitors there
can see a home of the
future and its heavy
electronics content.
But they will not see
the behind-the-scenes
computer controls as
did our consumer edi-
tor, Jerry Walker (see
p. 58).

In his reporting for
the story, Walker was
surprised by the ex-
pertise of the park’s
designers. “Many of
the people who plan
the sophisticated controls are not
computer experts or systems engi-
neers,” he says. “For the most part,
the appreciation of electronics has
grown gradually with people who
were originally moviemakers.”

A long-time fan of the Disney
characters, Walker could not resist
interviewing Mickey Mouse. “For a
star that great, Mickey was certainly
unaffected and modest. In fact, he
didn’t talk at all.”

t has been a decade now since
we started publishing our year-end
West European market report. Our
first was bannered “The Boom Con-
tinues.” This year, it’s a completely
different story, as you'll see when
you turn to page 65.
About the only thing about the
report that hasn’t changed is the

Publisher’s letter

way we put it together. First, some
300 questionnaires go to companies
and government agencies. Then our
field crew, headed by International
Managing Editor, Arthur Erikson,
follows up with interviews.

Working with Erikson were Elec-

tronics staffers William Arnold
(United Kingdom) and John Gosch
(West Germany) and World News
correspondents Haakan Boerde
(Oslo), Dom Curcio (Madrid), An-
drew Heath (Milan), Al Pedersen
(Copenhagen), Laura Pilarski (Zur-
ich), Martin Schultz (Helsinki),
Richard Shepherd (Paris), Robert
Skole (Stockholm), and Jim Smith

belli

December 26, 1974 Volume 47, Number 26
94,321 copies of this issue printed

Published every other Thursday by McGraw-Hill, Inc. Founder
James H. McGraw 1860-1948. Publication office 1221 Avenue of the
Americas, N.Y,, N.Y. 10020; second class postage paid at New York.
N.Y. and additional mailing offices,

Executive, editorial, circulation and advertising addresses: Electron-
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Subscriptions limited to persons with active, professional, functional
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other countries $50.00. Single copies: $4.00.

Officers of the McGraw-Hill Publications Company: John R, Emery
President, J. Elton Tuohig, Executive Vice President-Administration;
Gene W. Simpson, Group Publisher-Vice President; Senior Vice Presi-
dents: Ralph Blackburn, Circulation; Walter A. Stanbury, Editorial; John
D. Hoglund, Controller; David G. Jensen, Manufacturing; Gordon L
Jones, Marketing; Jerome D. Luntz, Planning & Development

Officers of the Corporation: Shelton Fisher, Chairman of the Board
and Chief Executive Officer; Harold W. McGraw, Jr., President and
Chief Operating Officer; Wallace F. Traendly, Group President,
McGraw-Hill Publications Company and McGraw-Hill Informations Sys-
tems Company; Robert N. Landes, Senior Vice President and Secre-
tary; Ralph J. Webb, Treasurer

Title registered in U.S. Patent Office; Copyright ©1974 by McGraw-
Hill, Inc. All rights reserved. The contents of this publication may not be
reproduced in whole or in part without the consent of copyright owner

Subscribers: The publisher, upon written request to our New York of-
fice from any subscriber, agrees to refund that part of the subscription
price applying to copies not yet mailed. Please send change of address
notices or complaints to Fulfillment Manager; subscription orders to
Circulation Manager, Electronics, at address below. Change of address
notices should provide old as well as new address, including postal zip
code number. If possible, attach address label from recent issue. Allow
one month for change to become effective.

Postmaster: Please send form 3579 to Fulfillment Manager, Electron.
ics, P.O. Box 430, Hightstown, N.J. 08520.

Electronics/December 26, 1974

“KEPCO

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trol, closed loop control, even digital control. They'll respond with better than 0.01%
linearity to the most complex programming instructions, will slew to a new setting at
speeds up to 1V/microsecond, and allow you to set zero with millivolt resolution.
Kepco’s Operational Power Supplies are most useful instrumentation for:

™ AUTOMATIC TEST EQUIPMENT (ATE), where the ability to rapidly
settle at a programmed level, speeds your test cycle.

m PROCESS CONTROL SYSTEMS, where the Operational Power Sup-
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feedback loops.

@ THE STABILIZATION OF CURRENT, where minimum offsets allow
small currents to be effectively controlled and where capacitor/ess out-
put circuits offer the dynamic compliance to track a varying load.

m MEASUREMENTS, where an Operational Power Supply’s ability to
sum, scale and integrate, permits the complex combination of inputs.

™ OPERATIONAL POWER SUPPLIES are made on/y by KEPCO, INC.

Ask for your free copy of ‘Using Operational Power Supplies,”” our 32-page booklet that
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Readers comment

Equation changes

To the Editor: Certain errors in the
equations in our Designer’s Case-
book, “Single op amp compares
bipolar voltage magnitudes,” [Nov.
14, p. 123] have come to our atten-
tion. The errors were caused by
changing from the complementary
mode of operation of the compara-
tor when the final draft was written.

First, the references to e; in the
first four equations have the words
“negative” and “positive” reversed.
Then, in the first equation the sign
between e; and eq should be plus,
not minus. In the second equation
that sign should be minus, not plus.

The third equation, designated
(1), should read:

—(e;+ea) = er (Ri/R3) (1)

In equation (2), the sign between
e; and eq should be plus, and the
minus sign in front of e, should be
deleted.

F.N. Trofimenkoff

R.E. Smallwood

The University of Calgary
Alberta, Canada

Across the Potomac

To the Editor: We are happy to get

the publicity that went when you

quoted me (Electronics, Oct.3,p.95].

But we’re in Washington, D.C., not
Arlington, Va.

W.L. Pritchard

Satellite Systems Engineering, Inc.

Correcting an oversight

Some important data was omitted
from a caption in “For solid-state
watches, the time is at hand” [Dec.
12, p. 97]. The wafer and chip (left
and middle photos) were designed
and built by Micro Power Systems,
Santa Clara, Calif., for various
watch manufacturers, and the mod-
ule assembly (right) is from Na-
tional Semiconductor Corp. Micro
Power’s silicon-gate C-MOS watch
chip contains all the functions for
frequency-division and the related
signal processing needed to display
minutes, seconds, and date. Using
only 12,000 square mils, it takes up
about half the chip area of designs
built with standard C-MOs.

Electronics/December 26, 1974

ON

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8 Circle 8 onreader service card

Meetings

Optical Fiber Transmission Topical
Meeting, IEEE, Williamsburg Lodge,
Williamsburg, Va., Jan. 7-9.

Computer Architecture, IEEE, Uni-
versity of Houston, Houston, Texas,
Jan. 20-22.

Reliability and Maintainability Sym-
posium, IEEE et al., Sheraton Park
Hotel, Washington, D.C., Jan.
28-30.

Physics of Compound Semicon-
ductor Interfaces, University of Cal-
ifornia, Los Angeles, Feb. 4-6.

Wincon—Aerospace & Electronic
Systems Winter Convention, IEEE,
Aerospace & Electronics Systems
Society, Americana Hotel, Los An-
geles, Calif., Feb. 5-7.

Nepcon ’75 West and International
Microelectronics Exhibition, Indus-
trial Scientific Conference Manage-
ment Inc. (Chicago, IIl.), Anaheim
Convention Center, Anaheim,
Calif., Feb. 11-13.

CAD/CAM III. Computer-Aided De-
sign and Computer-Aided Manufac-
turing, Society of Manufacturing
Engineers, Hyatt Regency O’Hare
Hotel, Chicago, Ill., Feb. 11-13.

International Solid State Circuits
Conference, IEEE, Marriott Hotel,
Philadelphia, Pa., Feb. 12-14.

Compcon Spring—Computer Confer-
ence, IEEE, Jack Tar Hotel, San
Francisco, Calif., Feb. 25-27.

Industrial Applications of Micro-
processors, IEEE, Sheraton Hotel,
Philadelphia, Pa., March 11-12.

Reliability Physics Symposium,
IEEE, MGM Grand Hotel, Las Vegas,
Nev., April 1-3.

Southeastcon *75, IEEE, Sheraton
Center, Charlotte, N.C., April 6-9.

Electronics Production and Test
Equipment Exposition, U.S. Depart-
ment of Commerce, Stockholm,
April 7-11; London, April 15-18.

Electronics/December 26, 1974

SHIF-SEAN

®

PANEL

is the best choice

SELF-SCAN panels are best because
they can provide alphanumeric display
of data — 16 to 256 characters per
message — for data entry, automatic
checkout systems, wherever man-
machine interface takes place.

SELF-SCAN panels are best because
they are brighter. Burroughs tech-
nology makes possible sharp characters
with no fuzziness, no loss of focus, no
distortion, a 120-degree viewing angle,
and readability up to 25 feet with mini-
mum glare and reading fatigue.

SELF-SCAN panels are best because
they are the most versatile self-
contained display panels commercially
available. A wide variety of character
generators offers 45 different displays,
including Cyrillic, Hebrew and
Katakana alphabets as well as standard
ASCII code.

SELF-SCAN panels are best because
they can be packaged in less than 1/2”
depth and are less costly than CRT’s
with comparable message capability.
The cost per light-emitting dot will
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Want to see SELF-SCAN panels
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You can See the difference

SELF-SCAN PANEL

Burroughs

Circle 9 onreader service card

HOW TO COMPARE
APPLES &
ORANGES

yee

OR THE INTERDATA 7/32 VS. THE PDP 11/40

It’s a simple comparison when you
think about minicomputer hardware
in terms of software.

Interdata believes that hardware
exists to make programming easier.
That’s the reason we invented a
32-bit minicomputer. And that’s the
reason there really can be no
comparison with any 16-bit machine.

Just think about it.

Most 16-bit mini’s were designed
when memory cost you a dollar a
word. Multiple registers meant four.
Software was a set of diagnostics.
And hardware was king.

Not so now.

Large memories are the rule—not the
exception. One program alone can
exceed 65K. Multiple registers now

mean 32. And most of your dollars
are spent on software.

That’s why Interdata made the 7/32
happen—to make your software
simpler and cheaper.

For example, the 7/32 has a Real
Time Operating System you can
understand. A system optimized for
FORTRAN programs. And a set of
editors, debuggers, and file packages
to brighten any programmer’s day.
All with a CAL assembler that gives
you efficient code and is compatible
not only with Interdata 7/32’s but
with our 7/16’s as well.

So don’t try to compare apples and
oranges. It’s unfair to the apple.
Especially when their apple only has
16 bits to help their software and our
orange has 32.

Ce

Interdata, Inc., 2 Crescent Place, Oceanport, N.J. 07757 (201) 229-4040.

Gentlemen:

me.

Name

0 Maybe I shouldn’t compare, but I’ve got to try. Send me more
about the 7/32.

O Let’s talk oranges. Have an Interdata representative contact

- Title

City.

Company
Address

State Zip _

*
IW TER DATA:

A subsidiary of The Perkin-Elmer Corporation

2 Crescent Place, Oceanport, N.J. 07757.
(201) 229-4040.

6486 Viscount Road, Mississauga, Ontario,
Canada L4V 1H3. (416) 677-8990.

Arundel Road, Uxbridge, Middlesex, England.
Uxbridge 52441.

8032 Grafelfing bei Munchen,

Waldstrabe 31, West Germany. 854-20-34-38.
92 Chandos Street, St. Leonards,

Sydney, Australia 2065. 439-8400.

Circle 11 on reader service card

This ad has been placed by Photocircuits
with permission of a satisfied customer.

“Miy records prove it.
Photocircuits shipped us over
1/2 million PCBs for calculators.
Less than 1% were rejected?’

Tom Miller, Production Control Supervisor, Hewlett-Packard

| supervised in-house production of
printed circuitry for Hewlett-Packard.
When the demand for our pocket-sized
calculators taxed our own capacity for
making printed circuit boards, | had to
look outside the company.

The scientific and business calcula-
tors Hewlett-Packard makes have infinitely
more functions than the typical ‘house-
wife’ variety. And we have sold over one-
half million of them. So we needed large
volumes of quality boards for logic and
battery charger applications.

“Photocircuits’ reputation for
quality was confirmed by my first visit.

“I've been in this business since
1955, so | knew of Photocircuits even
before we made a facilities check. What |
had heard proved to be true. Their overall
efficiency was evident and everyone
seemed to know what they were doing.

We had no qualms about dealing
with an East Coast house either. They
were only a short 5 hours away by plane.
And seconds away by WATS line. In
fact, when we asked for price quotes, they
got back to us within ten days. And that

included mailing time.
“Their price was lower and they
delivered what they promised.

“Long Island labor costs are com-
parable to the West Coast, but Photo-
circuits still managed to beat local prices.
To me, that's another indication of over-
all efficiency.

And even though we hit them at the
same time as everyone else, Photocircuits
guaranteed they would deliver a certain
number of boards every week. They kept
that promise.

“Quality-wise, they were the best
boards I’ve seen in twenty years.

We have some very stringent stan-
dards at Hewlett-Packard. Not only do we
expect operational quality, but esthetics
as well. If a customer tears the cover off
one of our products, we want our com-
ponents to look good.

In both cases, performance and
looks, Photocircuits was outstanding.
Over half a million boards have been
delivered. Less than 1% have been rejected
for any reason whatsoever.

What more is there to say?’

Photocircuits

Division of Koll morgen Corporation, Glen Cove, New York 11542 (516) 448-1000
Printed circuitry for mass-produced electronics

Electronics/December 26, 1974

Circle 13 on reader service card

PRECISION/POWER
WIRE-WOUND
RESISTOR
ENGINEERING
HANDBOOK

The industry’s most exten-
sive and most accurate
compilation of engineering
information on wire-wound
resistors

including: beryllium oxide
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Write for your free copy today!

INDUSTRY’S
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Irvington, New Jersey 07111

(201) 374-3311

14 Circle 14 on reader service card

People

Offshore assembly
looks good to Parent

Up until about three months ago,
38-year-old Robert Parent was rela-
tively content as production man-
ager at Silicon General Inc.

Then he was approached by one
of his clients, Jacob Ratinoff, presi-
dent of Interlek Inc. of San Mateo,
Calif., which, through its Philippine-
based aifiliate, Dynetics Inc., assem-
bles about 9 million integrated cir-
cuits yearly for U.S. customers.

“Jake told me he wanted to ex-
pand to 100 million pieces a year,
and he wanted me to be general
manager,” says Parent, who ac-
cepted the invitation despite some
misgivings.

“The key is how you handle the
expansion,” he says. “You don’t do
it with 14- or 16-pin jelly beans. The
advantage of offshore assembly is
low labor cost. But the prices of the
standard circuits are rock-bottom al-
ready, and no one is buying millions
of devices.”

Special. There is a market, how-
ever, for non-standard circuits, he
believes, where the typical user
wants quantities ranging from
10,000 to several hundred thousand
custom parts.

“But to capitalize on this market
you need a diversified production
line,” says Parent. “You must be
able to produce a wide variety of
pinouts, in several technologies, in
several kinds of packages and at
several levels of integration.”

To this end, he says, Inter-
lek/Dynetics has added 40,000
square feet to its original 10,000
square-foot IC assembly plant near
Manila. It will assemble packages
with anywhere from six to 40 leads
for bipolar, MOS and C-MOs chips,
with a choice of encapsulant.

In ceramic packages, says Parent,
Interlek will be able to deliver side
braze or Cerdip, including low-tem-
perature glass types. In addition, the
facility will have the capability of
handling small-, medium-, and
large-scale ICs.

The company currently has 450
employees, but Parent is negotiating

Growing. Assembly operations will grow if
they're diversified enough, says Parent

with about 20 new customers in the
U.S. and three in Europe and ex-
pects to expand to about 2.000
people by June 1975. If all this
seems to be a bit of a gamble, Par-
ent thinks the payoff is worth it.

“The chief advantage to expand-
ing during a down period is that
when the turnaround does come
you’ve got a tremendous edge on
competitors who are just gearing up
again,” he says. “And the way we’ve
decided to expand takes a lot of the
gamble out of it.”

Components are complex
for DEC’s Knowles

“My bag within the company is to
get something going,” says 38-year-
old Andrew C. Knowles, group vice
president and general manager of
the recently formed Components
group at Digital Equipment Corp.

In a sense, Knowles is taking the
Maynard, Mass.-based mini-
computer manufacturer back full
circle—to its beginnings in 1957
when it was an “iron” house selling
off-the-shelf logic modules with
little or no software or services.
Only now it’s time, he thinks, for the
concept of a “component” to be
vastly expanded.

“We'll be selling microcomputers
and peripheral devices such as cath-
ode-ray-tube displays, teleprinters
and cassette recorders, as well as our
standard logic-module products,”
says the energetic cigar-smoker.
“And by going after customers who
are self-sufficient enough not to

Electronics/December 26, 1974

NEW! Stainless steel plunger sleeve
‘Gs boosts life expectancy
NEw!
Plunger never hits \ .
this plug sono
deforming action occurs
NEW!

Steel shell design for

superior construction NEW!

lower cost Stronger end
plate/bushing
assembly

NEW! If the solenoid you’re now using in your product
lasts five years .. . you can now figure on 500 years. Be-
cause these new Guardian solenoids perform the 1 million
operations you expect of a traditional life tubular solenoid
...and keep right on... andon. Making them ideal for any-
place where a life expectancy of 1 million operations just
won't do. Where 100 million is more like it.

a

*And that’s a minimum. Life

Your Guardian Angel
(and dramatic engineering

developments) bring you

*. solenoids

#

/ that last
160 times
longer*

tests have already gone
past 100 million operations
...and are still running!

Mount almost instantly NEW!
thru installation hole ;
Plunger stop moved
or with special bracket to front of plunger
where it seats on sturdy
end plate/bushing assembly

Rubber Washer
Stainless Steel Washer

Molybdenumdisulfide
plunger coating

All because of a unique new design that increases
mechanical life .. . at just a little more cost. Only about
25% more, in fact, that traditional-life tubular solenoids.
Yet you get 10,000% more life.

Get all the long-life facts in the brand new 72-page
Guardian Solenoid Catalog. Yours free for the asking.

GUARDIAN:

GUARDIAN ELECTRIC MANUFACTURING CO. - 1566 West Carroll Ave., Chicago, Illinois 60607

Circle 15 on reader service card

Subminiature capacitors
with small mounting areas
for printed circuit boards

WIMA FKS 3 |

FKC 3

H= 6 to 8.5 mm
—™— _ inthe
capacitance

. range
FKS 2 min from 1000 pF
P.C. Module
5; 7.5; 10 mm
aa

to 0.15 pF

MKS 3

Characteristics:

The design has made better use of the
vertical area in order to reduce the
mounting area requirement for the
capacitor. This facilitates greater packing
density and easier mounting on printed
boards.

The termination wires are compatible
with the standard printed board grid to
allow simple insertion. Equally important,
the height of the capacitors is compatible
with transistors.

These new cast-moulded capacitors are
so small that they offer advantages
hitherto not obtainable

fs ®
when used on printed
circuit boards.

WILHELM WESTERMANN

Spezialvertrieb elektronischer Bauelemente
D-68 Mannheim - Fed. Rep. of Germany
P.O. Box 2345 - Tel.: (0621) 408012

Circle 16 on reader service card

Board man. Knowles is counting on the
customers’ not needing any help.

need software or services, we'll be
able to sell things at rock-bottom
prices.”

Selling processors as if they were
simple off-the-shelf components
comes easy to him, Knowles says. He
spent almost 10 years at RCA Corp.,
finishing up as manager of appli-
cations engineering for the com-
pany’s semiconductor products. And
when he joined DEC in 1969, he be-
gan as product-line manager for the
PDP-11, one of the first general-
purpose minicomputers with a uni-
fied bus.

But now LSI technology has been
pushed to the point where Knowles
is stocking “computers on a board,”
including a microcomputer that’s
software-compatible with the low-
end of the PDP-11 line. This is the
LSI-11, built of n-channel metal-ox-
ide-semiconductor chips developed
by Western Digital Corp. [Electron-
ics, Oct. 31, p. 25] and which will be
available early next year. He’s also
stocking a pair of processor products
made available earlier this year—the
MPS microcomputer board built
around Intel Corp.’s 8008 p-channel
8-bit LSI chip, and the slightly larger
PDP-8A microcomputer, which is
program-compatible with DEC’s
PDP-8E mini. Orders for a thou-
sand processors at a time are al-
ready coming in, says Knowles. And
he expects to do as well in peripher-
als.

Electronics/December 26, 1974

updating trom

BU406-BU 407 <i

y
ae “Rs

to your linescan problems

BU 406 - BU 407 : horizontal
deflection with plastic transistors

BU406 and BU407 are involving computer aid to - low leakage current due

NPN silicon epitaxial obtain optimal geometries. to advanced passivation
_ transistors designed Particularly good techniques

specifically for horizontal performance has been - guaranteed second

deflection final stages in achieved in various aspects ~— breakdown behaviour

monochrome television sets. of interest to deflection under typical operating

Even the largest popular circuit designers: conditions.

screen sizes are catered - high resistance to The reduced power

for since the BU406 has a flashover breakdown dissipation has allowed

breakdown voltage of thanks to optimized these devices to be

400 V and a peak geometry and a specially mounted in a plastic TO-220

repetitive collector current contoured h,, vs |, case, thereby cutting the

of 10A. characteristic cost of the device, and

The BU407 with its 330V - very low power dissipation _ offering the user cost

breakdown value will be as a result of efficient savings in assembly and

found adequate for small switching heatsink.

and medium sized screens.

This new family is the puzos | BU4O7

outcome of a directed

development programme Voces 400V 330V

| titi 10A 1
Circle 18 on reader service card “ae “4 oF
Bin 60W 60W
Vce sat (5/0.5 A) max 1V max1V

t of (5/0.5 A) max 0.75 ys max 0.75 ps
I5/p (40 V - 10 ms) 4A 4A

Machine fits gap
between mini and
microcomputer

Rockwell hiring
reps, distributors
for standard parts

Printer contains
microprocessor,
stepping motor

Novus adds
scientific 1-chip
calculators

Electronics/December 26, 1974

Electronics newsletter

A new computer that is intermediate between the traditional mini-
computer and the semiconductor microcomputer will be introduced in
early February by Computer Automation Inc., also known as the
Naked Mini company. Selling for about $500 each in quantity, the new
unit, as yet unnamed, is half the size of, and performs about half as
well as, the firm’s minicomputers, including the LSI-1 and the LSI-2.
The one-board LSI-1 accesses in 1.6 microseconds and measures 17 by
15 inches.

The new unit will use TTL MSI rather than MOS LSI—perhaps a reflec-
tion of the fact that Computer Automation is not yet in volume produc-
tion of the MOS-based LSI-1 it announced over a year ago [Electronics,
May 10, 1973, p. 154], though quantity shipments of the LSI-1 are now
said to be imminent. The LSI-2 is also a TTL MSI machine.

Though Rockwell Microelectronics is no longer making silicon-on-sap-
phire LSI for the commercial market (see p. 23), it is underscoring its
drive to establish a line of standard products by signing up reps and dis-
tributors. Rockwell will soon start shipments of its first standard part, a
high-speed 1,024-bit 1103A random-access memory [Electronics, Dec.
6, 1973, p. 36], with a 4,096-bit RAM to be sampled late in the second
quarter and produced in the fourth quarter. The company hopes to
have 12 reps by the end of the second quarter, with distributors signed
up in the third quarter.

Interdata Corp. has built a microprocessor into the controller of a com-
puter-output printer that it will introduce for the OEM market next
month. The machine, the second peripheral to be made by the com-
pany, uses the microprocessor not only to control the printing element,
but also to perform such additional tasks as monitoring communi-
cations lines and controlling transfers to and from the computer
memory. The printing element, which has a new shape, is driven by a
stepping motor instead of a servo.

The printer is designed to overcome problems with some recent
servo-controlled designs. Under certain adverse conditions, these print-
ers operate at as little as half the nominal rate, which causes misalign-
ment and blurring of characters, says Interdata.

Expanding out of strictly consumer-type calculators, the Novus Con-
sumer Products division of National Semiconductor Corp. is bringing
out a line of 10 new scientific and special-purpose hand-held machines.
Prices range from $80 to $170 for 14 models from basic slide rule to
full-function, dedicated-program units. The low prices for the scientific
calculator stem directly from a chip technology that accommodates all
the basic scientific and computational functions on a single p-channel
chip, and the absence of discrete components. All programable func-
tions are on a second chip.

20

National offers
22- and 18-pin
4-k RAMs

EM&M to add
core systems
for minis

Two in fly-off
for altimeter
in Army copters

Leitz builds unit
that enables blind
to avoid obstacles

Electronics newsletter

With a single move, National Semiconductor is catapulting itself into
the thick of the 4,096-bit random-access-memory race by supplying
both the 22-pin and 18-pin versions of that device by mid 1975 (see p.
24). According to Ron Livingston, MOS memory marketing manager,
National is taking the 18-pin route for its high-density device “because
that configuration offers both good board density and high speed with-
out needing the multiplexing circuitry required of 16-pin packages.”

National’s 18-pin part, MM 5270, will be in the 200-nanosecond range.
It differs from the TI design by sporting a more familiar three-state out-
put instead of the open-drain TI design. National achieved the re-
duced pin requirements by letting the logic chip select, read/write,
and Vcc reference share a single pin.

A major core-memory supplier, Electronic Memories and Magnetics
Corp., is aggressively expanding its efforts to reverse the slowing sales
of cores. The company will soon introduce plug-compatible add-on core-
memory systems for the General Automation SPC-16 and Interdata
7/16 and 7/32 minicomputers, the first such memories it has intro-
duced. Memories for other minicomputers are also being developed.

A “fly-off’ begins next month between Hoffman Electronics Corp. and
Honeywell Inc. when the Army Electronics Command starts testing
their prototypes of an “absolute” radar altimeter for Army helicopters.
The Army wants accuracy within 3 feet +3% of altitude from zero to
250 feet and +5% from 251 to 2,500 feet. The system is expected to be
sensitive enough to display the altitude from the tops of trees, snow,
and ice, or the ground if there is no cover.

The toughest trick for the winner will be to build the altimeter for
$3,500 each or less to fill an initial order of 2,000 units. Radar altime-
ters that do the job now cost about $7,300. The production award is ex-
pected in July 1975.

A lightweight, inexpensive electronic guidance unit for the blind is
the aim of a $250,000 development project partly financed by West
Germany’s Ministry for Research and Technology. The equipment is
being developed by Ernst Leitz GmbH, and is said to overcome the
weight and reliability problems of competing systems. Leitz expects to
have a prototype ready for next year and a marketable unit, to cost no
more than about $400, by 1976.

Built like an ordinary hand-held flashlight, the unit is to enable the
blind to detect objects at various distances to 10 feet and to help them
avoid such obstacles as curbstones and staircase steps. The system con-
verts optical signals impinging upon photocells into perceptible electri-
cal signals of varying strength. The company is testing both sound and
pressure for transferring the information.

Electronics/December 26, 1974

Fused-in-Glass
reliability
by Unitrode

for zeners and rectifiers

Diffused silicon die metallurgically bonded
between two pins.

Hard glass sleeve fused directly to die and pins
provides a voidless monolithic structure...seals
out moisture and contaminants...virtually
indestructible.

True high reliability is impossible if the design of

a zener or rectifier permits anything to destroy the
integrity of the chip. Unitrode’s exclusive construc-
tion has been revolutionizing military reliability
specifications since its introduction. Constant
process improvements and new products for
today’s sophisticated electronic equipment
maintain Unitrode’s leadership.

When you need hi-rel zeners or rectifiers, talk to
us. We're today’s leader in hi-rel products. Send
for our new Fused-/n-Glass Reliability brochure.
Or, for more information, call us at (617) 926-0404.

Unitrode makes over 1000 different hi-rel zeners
and rectifiers. Full performance ranges are avail-
able in JAN, JANTX, and JANTXV types.

“Available as high-voltage and high-current assemblies, and bridges

gue LIN T RODE

580 PLEASANT STREET, WATERTOWN, MA 02172

Electronics/December 26, 1974 Circle 21 on reader service card 21

GENERAL ELECTRIC
OPTOELECTRONIC
COUPLER LINEUP

H11 SERIES
COUPLERS

@ [4 Different models —
interchangeable with all
popular industry types

@ Transistor, Darlington and
SCR outputs

@ The Industry's first AC
input coupler-H11AA and
threshold coupler-H1 1A10

@ GE's patented glass
isolation yields the highest
available CTR and isolation
voltages-4N35 offers 100%
CTR with 3500V isolation

@ Covered under ULL. File
£51868 ;

H13 SERIES
INTERRUPTER
MODULES
W@ 4 Models offer ‘no
contact’ switching
Foruse as:
— shaft encoders
— counters
— position sensors
— key boards
— limit switches
— electronic
ignition systems

H15 SERIES
COUPLERS
@ 4000V isolation
@ 4 low cost models for pulse
transformer replacement,
thyristor triggering, logic
interfacing
@ Transistor and Darlington
outputs
@ Solid state reliability at low
cost
W@ Covered under U.L. File
£51868

H17 SERIES
MATCHED EMITTER
DETECTOR PAIRS

@ Industry's lowest cost
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@ Transistor and Darlington
outputs for general
purpose detection
applications and ‘no
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@ Replacements for limit
switches, small
mechanical contacts and
micro switches

COMPETITIVELY PRICED AND AVAILABLE
NOW FROM YOUR GENERAL ELECTRIC DISTRIBUTOR

“THE BEST COST NO MORE”

GENERAL (@) ELECTRIC

Electronics/December 26, 1974

Electronics review

Significant developments in technology and business

Rockwell shelves
commercial SOS
device activity

General Automation left
without a supplier for
single-chip CPU in its
LSI-12 microcomputer

The outlook for commercial appli-
cations of silicon-on-sapphire semi-
conductor devices has suffered a
serious setback because of the shelv-
ing of most of the commercial sos
effort at the Microelectronics Device
division of Rockwell International
Corp. The move leaves General Au-
tomation Inc., a Rockwell neighbor
in Anaheim, Calif., without a sup-
plier for the n-channel micro-
processor that served as the single-
chip central processor in its LsI-12
microcomputer [Electronics, Dec. 6,
1973, p. 39].

The Rockwell division, a pioneer
in SOS work, will continue to de-
velop silicon-on-sapphire tech-
nology for the military market. But
it has also abandoned its own devel-
opment of a 1,024-bit C-MOs-on-
sapphire random-access memory
device [Electronics, Jan. 10, p. 29].

According to Donn L. Williams,
president of Rockwell’s electronics
operations, the commercial SOS ac-
tivity was stopped because: “other
projects have to take higher prior-
ity.”

Low volume. In fact, Rockwell of-
ficials considered the General Auto-
mation CPU chip a laboratory effort,
rather than a production run, partly
because of the relatively small
quantities involved. Even in full
production, the device would repre-
sent only a small fraction of the
Rockwell division’s device output.

Electronics/December 26, 1974

For his part, General Automation
president Raymond J. Noorda com-
plains that his company “hadn’t
been getting the supply of processor
chips needed to continue the [LSI-
12] program, so the microprocessor
development has been put on the
back burner. It will continue as a
decent activity, but scaled down.”

General Automation had another
supplier for the sOs circuit—a small,
unnamed Orange County, Calif.,
spinoff from Rockwell—but Noorda
says that firm will concentrate on
improving the process, to improve
yields rather than product develop-
ment. Poor yields, in fact, appar-
ently killed the Rockwell effort.
General Automation has built a
number of the 8-bit LSI-12 micro-
computers and delivered them to
customers, but couldn’t get enough
chips to supply the expected pro-
duction requirements.

The minicomputer maker is pro-
ceeding with a dual approach to a
substitute CPU for the LsI-12 and
still-to-come LSI-16 machines: a
high speed MSI TTL microcomputer
replacement for the LSI-12, and a
lower performance MOS LSI com-
puter to replace the LSI-16, which
was not due until spring. “This ac-
tivity had been going on in parallel
because of some feeling that this
might happen. We’re taking the
logic design and going into a more
predictable technology,” Noorda
says.

Slippage. Noorda says that the
16-bit computer, the LSI-16 is not
far behind schedule. “We never
committed to customers on it. Our
present plan is to deliver substitute
technology within three months of
when we had planned to deliver the

LSI-16 computer.”

Noorda says that General Auto-
mation will be able to provide an alt-
ernate processor by the middle of
next year—choosing either from
among its own products or from
something available on the market.
For some customers, then, this means
a microcomputer board using a mi-
croprocessor chip set. oO

Solid State

Gain up, size down
in bipolar process

Researchers at West Germany’s Sie-
mens AG have come up with a
simple method for improving the
performance and reducing the size
of bipolar npn transistors. It relies
on a modification of a standard
transistor fabrication process.

Called the polysil-emitter process
and developed by Helmuth Murr-

SiO2

MMMM WILL

POLYSIL ~,

SiO,

©ZZZZL

[5 sae ae:
is ie a

(b)

Difference. Polysil process, bottom, removes
dip under the emitter and controls base
width precisely.

23

Electronics review

mann and Andreas Glas] at the
company’s Munich laboratories, it
facilitates the manufacture of npn
transistors. Their base widths can be
more precisely controlled than ever
before and, for a given doping level
of the active base, current gain can
be 10 times that obtained by the
standard process.

Using normal 4-micrometer-wide
structures, the Siemens researchers
expect they will soon be able to pro-
duce polysil-emitter transistors with
oxide isolation that will have an
area of only 500 square microme-
ters. This compares with roughly
3,000 um? for a transistor fabricated
by the standard process with pn-
junction isolation. Murrmann says
the process is “especially attractive”
for large-scale integrated circuits.

In a standard npn transistor, the
dip effect under the phosphorus-
doped emitter is a big operational
drawback. Showing up as a bulge in
the base region (see top of figure on
page 23), the dip makes it difficult to
control the base width precisely dur-
ing device fabrication. It also in-
creases the internal base resistance,
and the actual emitter efficiency
turns out to be far below the theo-
retical value determined from the
emitter’s doping level.

The dip occurs because of the
high doping concentration in the
emitter’s surface—usually a result of
crystal imperfections. The reason for
the lower actual efficiency, on the
other hand, is the high recombina-
tion rate of the minority carriers and
a drop of the effective emitter-dop-
ing.

Simple fix. The polysil process
gets around these problems in a rel-
atively simple manner. It shields the
single-crystal silicon base material
from the emitter’s high surface con-
centration. The process (see the bot-
tom of the figure) starts out with or-
dinary planar fabrication. Then
after producing the window in the
surface oxide, an undoped polycrys-
talline silicon layer—the polysil—is
deposited across the entire transistor
surface. The dopant is then made to
diffuse through the polysil layer into
the base material below, but the
high doping concentration is con-

24

fined to the polysil layer on the sur-
face.

Next, the polysil is etched so that
an overlapping cover for the emitter
hole is left. Finally, etching for the
base contacts and the metalization
step are performed in the usual
fashion.

The high current gain results
from the relatively low emitter-dop-
ing level in the single-crystalline
material. This leads to a high emit-
ter efficiency. The high current gain
and the small base resistance—the
latter stemming from the high dop-
ing concentration in the base—result
in only a small voltage drop across
the base region.

All this translates into a consider-
able area reduction, for the higher
the current gain and the lower the
base resistance, the smaller it’s pos-
sible to make the emitter length and

the base area under the emitter.
Investigations into the experi-
mental polysil-emitter transistors
have shown some other surprising
results, Murrmann points out. The
base width is determined primarily
by the base penetration, and this
means that polysil transistors have a
high degree of reproducibility.
Because of the low emitter pene-
tration, a relatively high base width
remains so that the cutoff frequency,
fi, of the polysil emitter is rather
lower than the ft of normal transis-
tors. However, by reducing the pen-
etration of the base, the base width
can be controlled so that higher cut-
off frequency values can be ob-
tained without affecting the behav-
ior of the polysil emitter. The
Siemens researchers expect to ob-
tain cut-off frequencies of up to 4
gigahertz. O

Customer desire for greater board density
causes shift to small 4-k RAM packages

Just when it looked as if semicon-
ductor manufacturers had settled on
two package approaches for 4,096-
bit random access memories—a 16-
pin and a 22-pin version—suddenly
a new volley is being aimed at pro-
viding parts that boost board den-
sities.

First, Texas Instruments, Dallas,
introduced an 18-pin version [Elec-
tronics, Dec. 12, p. 30], and now In-
tel Corp., Santa Clara, Calif., one of
the standard bearers in the 22-pin
camp, will put its 4-kilobit design
into a 16-pin package, while contin-
uing to supply the 22-pin part. And
National Semiconductor Corp.,
Santa Clara, which intended to
make the TI/Intel 22-pin standard,
is now supplying an 18-pin device as
well.

Samples of the National parts will
be available in March or April, and
production quantities are scheduled
for the middle of the year. The com-
pany’s 18-pin device differs from the
TI part in that it has a more familiar
tri-state type of output, instead of
the open-collector type.

Dave West, marketing manager
at Mostek Inc., Carrollton, Texas,
points out that the 16-pin package,
which Mostek pioneered, yields al-
most twice the packing density on a
printed circuit board as the 22-pin
part. And, points out Jim Coe,
Mostek’s applications engineering
manager, users already have the
automatic insertion equipment
needed for 16-pin and 18-pin pack-
ages. Such equipment was pur-
chased for the older 1,024-bit RAMs,
which are supplied in the same
packages. Equipment to handle the
22-pin package isn’t readily avail-
able yet, Coe says.

Mostek received a big boost
recently when NCR Co. selected its
16-pin RAM for its point-of-sale ter-
minals, financial data systems, and
mainframe computers.

But TI’s counter-move with an 18-
pin package could take some of the
wind out of Mostek’s sails. The dif-
ference in packing density on a
board between 16- and 18-pin pack-
ages isn’t nearly as great as it is be-
tween the 16- and 22-pin parts. The

Electronics/December 26, 1974

18-pin part is faster than most 16-
pin devices, so that users may opt
for the greater speed rather than
what could only, be a rather modest
increase in board-packing density.

Mike Markkula, North American
marketing manager at Intel, doesn’t
believe that will happen. Manufac-
turers of minicomputer and remote
intelligent-terminals, he points out,
are particularly concerned about
small size. But large-computer man-
ufacturers put a premium on
throughput.

“The first [type of manufacturer]
wants high-density memories, and
the second wants high-speed memo-
ries,’ says Markkula. ‘“‘Mini-
computer manufacturers use the 16-
pin rather than the 22-pin because it
allows them to use the same number
of bits of memory but reduce the
board size by 15% to 25%.”

No plans. Texas Instruments has
no plans to follow its 18-pin RAM
with a 16-pin version, says Edwin S.
Huber, product marketing manager
for MOS memories. “Because of the
particular circuitry that’s used for
the 16-pin’s multiplexed addresses,
a 16-pin package would require a
completely new design, significantly
changing our chip. We cannot get
both the 18- and 22-pin RAMs from
the same chip.”

He points out that the 16-pin ver-
sion with the two clocks and compli-
cated phasing that are used may be
more difficult to apply to transistor-
transistor-logic memory where
level-shifting is not required. Oo

Memory

Density pushed by
bubble lattice

Working with a new storage con-
cept, IBM Corp. researchers say they
believe they can increase the capac-
ity of bubble memories by 16 times
and probably much more.

In fact, the IBM approach, called a
Bubble Lattice File store, may in-
deed have no practical upper limit
in terms of information storage den-

Electronics/December 26, 1974

The war in Vietnam convinced Army
Officials they needed a system that
_ would detect the first round of artil-
_ lery fire, and by calculating its tra-
jectory, pinpoint the gun that fired it.
One solution to the problem is this
artillery-locating radar, built by
Hughes Aircraft Co. for the Army
Electronics Command, Fort Mon-
mouth, N. J. Sperry Rand Corp. is
also submitting an entry in the
AN/TPQ-37 competition and _ will
shoot it out with Hughes at the Field
Artillery Center, Fort Sill, Okla.
Hughes employs a three-dimen-
/ sional radar that scans the horizon
_ with a pencil-beam that’s electron-
ically steered. The antenna array
contains hundreds of discrete
phase shifters. Until the test results
are in, however, Army officials are
taking a wait-and-see attitude. They
suggest that a system combining ra-
| dar and acoustic sensors may ulti-
mately solve the artillery-locating
problem, as well as the more per-
plexing mortar-locating problem.
_ ECOM is also funding development
| of a mortar-locating radar, for which
Hughes is also competing.

]

sity, says Otto Voegeli, of the com-
pany’s Research Laboratory in San
Jose, Calif.

“At the very least,” he says, “it
will separate the problem of boost-
ing information storage capacity
from the problem of improving the
resolution of photolithographic
techniques used to make bubble-
memory devices.”

In conventional bubble memo-
ries, magnetic bubbles—flat cylin-
drically shaped domains of magneti-
zation contained in garnet mate-
rial— are moved from point to point
by applying a rotating magnetic
field to thin-film permalloy patterns
of T’s and I’s deposited on the gar-
net. The rotating field causes differ-
ent parts of the pattern to alternate
polarity, pulling the bubbles along.
The presence or absence of bubbles
at different points can represent
binary Is and 0s.

Crystalline. The new concept
packs the bubbles close together in a
configuration that resembles a crys-
talline lattice; hence, its name.

| Army seeks first-round targeting capability

“In most other memory devices—
core, semiconductor and conven-
tional magnetic bubble—some de-
vice structure is used to define each
bit position,” says Voegeli. “As a re-
sult, the density of the memory de-
pends on how small you can make
that structure.”

Thus, the storage density of mag-
netic bubble devices depends in part
on how fine the dimensions of the
T- and I-bar structures can be fabri-
cated using photolithographic tech-
niques. In the lattice file, these struc-
tures are eliminated, and, though
photolithography is used, line ge-
ometries need not be as small. The
storage density possible with con-
ventional bubble memories is high.
Bell Telephone Laboratories, for ex-
ample, has fabricated a 250-by-195-
mil memory chip containing 16,448
bits [Electronics, May 16, p. 29].

In the bubble lattice, the bubbles
themselves define the bit positions
in exactly the same fashion as atoms
arrange themselves in a crystal.
“The position of each bubble is de-

25

Electronics review

fined by its interactions with its
neighbors,” Voegeli explains. “Since
the lattice is the lowest energy state
the bubble can attain they will form
one if given a chance.”

Packed. The bubbles are packed
together very densely with no empty
spaces so that a zero can no longer
be represented by the absence of a
bubble. Instead, IBM scientists use
magnetic differences in the wall sur-
rounding each bubble. The magne-
tization gradually rotates along this
boundary region from up to down.
In some bubbles, the direction of ro-
tation is constant around the pe-
rimeter. In others, the direction re-
verses many times.

“Not only can we generate ten
states randomly but we can also
generate them in a controlled fash-
ion—that is, to write—only those
bubbles which either do not reverse
direction or which reverse once,”
says Voegeli. “We do this by impos-
ing an in-plane magnetic field on
bubbles fed through a channel.”

The researchers have also found
that bubbles with no reversals travel
in a straight line when subjected to
the in-plane magnetic field, while
those with one reversal are deflected
at an angle of about 30°. Thus by
superimposing current conductors
on the film, it was possible to con-
struct a reading device to separate
the two bubble types and detect Is
and 0s.

“At this point, we have built the
read, write and storage functions of
the BLF on separate chips,” he says.
“Before we integrate them in a
single device we want to consider
several alternative methods of read-
ing, writing and storing.” oO

Consumer electronics

TV to get more
digital tuning

Despite a dismal year for color tele-
vision-sales, semiconductor manu-
facturers continue to offer all-elec-
tronic, digital tuning systems to
penny-conscious TV-set makers.

26

Manufacturers were receptive to
two new systems—one a joint devel-
opment by Plessey Semiconductors
Inc., Santa Ana, Calif., and Na-
tional Semiconductor Corp., Santa
Clara, Calif., the other from Fair-
child Semiconductor division,
Mountain View, Calif. Both were
demonstrated at this month’s Chi-
cago Fall Conference on Broadcast
and Television Receivers. Currently
implented with off-the-shelf small-
and medium-scale-integrated pack-
ages, they are variations on the fre-
quency synthesis theme that’s been
around for several years. But the ad-
vent of inexpensive 1-gigahertz divi-
ders to interface with broadcast os-
cillator frequencies that reach 931
megahertz makes the approach “ec-

uhf

VARACTOR
TUNER

> + J Y7
“ha |
Ee

F 82x 11 ROM ‘
STEERING
LOGIC

" AY

d

j KEYBOARD

Turn-on. TV-channel synthesizer/controller section of digital tuning circuit developed jointly
by National Semiconductor and Plessey Semiconductor eventually should be integrated in
single 40-pin National package. Plessey is building the 1-GHz prescaler.

| FREQUENCY AND
PHASE DETECTOR |
DISPLAY
LOGIC

KEYBOARD INTERFACE }

onomically and technically feasible
for the first time,’ comments Eric
Breeze, a staff engineer for digital
applications at Fairchild.

Under $30. Fairchild’s tuner-con-
trol package, including light-emit-
ting-diode display, sells for less than
$30, he says, and if the components
are integrated further, it could hit
the $15 range that’s competitive
with the electromechanical compo-
nents now used.

The National/Plessey system is
also under $30 but without LEDs.
When much of the electronics are
integrated onto a single MOS chip
next year, the system should go for
$12 or $13 in half-million quantities,
says Joseph Obot, consumer mar-
keting manager at National. The

TTL 12-BIT
BINARY
COUNTER

oe
* a

BB 30
a J

2 MHz
re CRYSTAL

LED DISPLAY |

Electronics/December 26, 1974

PICK A
PERFORMER

Select any of 5
display modules...
15 plug-ins...
convert to cabinet
or rackmount

For demonstration circle 26 on reader service card.

Measurement capabilities, applica-
tion flexibility and a conservative
price tag are three sound reasons
for specifying Tektronix 5100 Series
low-frequency oscilloscopes.
Designed to keep pace econom-
ically with changing measurements
and applications, the 5100 Series
offers a choice... five display units
featuring dual and single beam,
storage and non-storage displays...
fifteen low-cost, interchangeable
plug-ins with 1-8 traces... normal
and delayed sweep ... bench or
rackmount models. Designed for
operation from DC to 2 MHz.
Depending upon plug-in selection,
the 5100 provides conventional or
differential measurement capabil-
ities, curve tracing, and even
sampling to 1 GHz. The scope buyer
may now select the exact config-
uration and capabilities.to meet his
present needs, and be confident

zt

: ace

that future measurement applica-
tions can be accommodated by
adding other plug-ins or display
units. The cost? As low as $765 for
a complete oscilloscope.

For detailed specifications contact
your local Tektronix Field Engineer
or write: Tektronix, Inc., P.O. Box
500, Beaverton, Oregon 97077.

In Europe, write Tektronix Ltd.,
P.O. Box 36, St. Peter Port,
Guernsey, C.1., U.K.

er
TEKTRONIX
Bd

committed to
technical excellence

Circle 27 on reader service card 27

Electronics review

system has been shown privately to
“several key accounts,” and Obot
expects to see it on dealers’ floors
some time next year.

At the center of this frequency-
synthesis approach is a one-chip TV
channel synthesizer/controller that
National hopes to implement in
metal—oxide-semiconductor tech-
nology. Plessey, responsible for
manufacturing and marketing the
complete system, shown in the fig-
ure on. the preceding page, will also
provide the 1-GHz emitter-coupled
divider circuitry logic that serves as
the system’s prescaler, a fixed di-
vider necessary to get high-fre-
quency signals from the ultra- and
very-high-frequency tuners down to
transistor-transistor-logic ranges.

Converter. Working from a con-
ventional calculator-type keyboard
through on-chip decoder/interface
circuitry, the proposed National
MM5328N uses an 82-by-11-bit
read-only memory to convert chan-
nel input into digital codes. Two of
the ROM’s 11 output lines turn on
either uhf or vhf varactor tuners
and switch between the vhf bands,
while the remainder drive a 12-bit
TTL binary counter. In the discrete
version now offered, the ROM seg-
ment is handled by two 2-kilobit
programable ROMs.

The chip’s frequency and phase
detector compares the counter out-
put with a reference signal, which is
generated by an external 2-MHz
crystal oscillator, and then feeds the
resulting dc signal back to the
varactors to provide an exact phase
lock with the divided-down refer-
ence. Data for a seven-segment LED
or an on-screen channel display,
such as is used by Magnavox
Corp.’s STAR tuner [Electronics,
June 27, p. 34], is supplied by the
chip. The chip also has the capabil-
ity for up-down channel scanning
for remote control applications.

With an optional battery, the Na-
tional/Plessey circuit can store the
last channel number when the re-
ceiver is turned off; on-screen chan-
nel and time display require an op-
tional character generator and
digital clock, both now used in the
Heathkit high-end television kit

28

[Electronics, Jan. 10, p. 38].
Fairchild’s approach is similar,
but instead of programing the 12-bit
counter with a ROM, it uses a digital
offset approach, which requires low-
cost gating to detect the offset. To
obtain the local oscillator frequency
for input to the programable
counter, the Fairchild algorithm
multiplies the channel number by
six and adds a constant, which
changes for each of the three tele-
vision bands. C

Instruments

Simple components
gauge microwaves

Measuring the parameters of high-
frequéncy signals over a wide fre-
quency range is usually a time-con-
suming job. Precise test equipment
must be carefully tuned at each fre-
quency to eliminate frequency-de-

News briefs

pendent errors caused by such
things as impedance mismatches.
And phase information about a sig-
nal requires even more specialized
test gear.

But a physicist at the National
Bureau of Standards, Boulder,
Colo., has come up with a simple
method for deriving complex ampli-
tude/phase parameters from stan-
dard wattmeter readings.

According to Cletus Hoer, volt-
age, current, power and phase pa-
rameters on a transmission line can
be calculated by using a six-port
system (see figure on page 30) and
combining the readings of four
wattmeters in linear equations that
he has developed. Only standard
off-the-shelf hardware is used, and
frequency-dependent variations in
the couplers and elsewhere are can-
celed in the mathematical manipu-
lations.

Originally, the design of the six-
port called for precision compo-
nents. But Hoer determined that
even large variations across the fre-

Reshuffle at Intel would make Moore chief exec
The names will be the same, but the top brass at Intel Corp., Santa Clara,
Calif., will recommend the following title changes to the board of directors

next April:

Robert N. Noyce, president, would become chairman of the board. Ar-

thur Rock, the current board chairman, would become vice chairman and
chairman of the executive committee. The president and chief executive of-
ficer would be Gordon E. Moore, who is now executive vice president. An-
drew S. Grove, vice president of operations, would become executive vice
president. Component operations would be divided between Leslie L. Va-
dasz, who will manage engineering and quality assurance, and Eugene J.
Flath, who will head manufacturing.

Du Pont develops new fiber-optic-material

The du Pont Co. has developed a new plastic fiber-optic cable for use in
data transmission. Called PFX, the material stems from du Pont'’s earlier de-
velopment of its ‘‘Crofon.’’ Transmission loss, at 656 nanometers, accord-
ing to du Pont, is 470 decibals per kilometer for PFX, which is available in
polyethylene-jacketed cables containing seven 15-mil fibers. Du Pont ex-
pects the material will be used in aircraft, computers, secure short-length
communications lines and comparable data-transmission applications.

Color-TV leads November consumer-electronics drop

Electronic Industries Association says that consumer electronic products
sales in November continued to decline in all categories. Color-TV receiv-
ers fell 30.6% to 628,382 units from the same month last year. The decline
put sales for the first 11 months at less than 7.1 million receivers, off 13.6%.
Monochrome receiver sales of 503,000 for November were down 27.2% for
the month, while the 11-month total of 5.3 million was down 14%.

Electronics/December 26, 1974

FIT ENE. t svat

PriEi is

Telequipment instruments can be
your best buy for trouble-shooting
consumer electronic products at
the bench or in the field, for many
laboratory applications, for man-
ufacturing production control, for
student labs, and for broad areas
of design engineering—virtually
any price-sensitive area of appli-
cation where the instrument spe-
cifications meet user demands.
The performance and reliability
of Telequipment instruments are
well established.

For demonstration circle 28 on

at

The D61 10-MHz dual-trace os-
cilloscope, for example, has been
acclaimed by independent ex-
perts for its ‘‘unique features and
superior performance.” (Use the
coupon for a copy of the article,
Reports from the Test Lab.) The
D61 is chosen as a quality 10-
MHz dual-channel oscilloscope
throughout the industry. TV line
or frame triggering and provi-
sions for X-Y vector patterns
make the D61 especially well
suited to consumer product ser-

reader service card.

vice shops. Its stable triggering
characteristics, front panel sim-
plicity, and versatility make it an
excellent choice for industrial
and educational use, as well.

The Telequipment line also in-
cludes the DM64 10-MHz dual-
channel storage oscilloscope, the
exceptionally low-priced S51B 3-
MHz oscilloscope, and more.
There’s an easy-to-operate tran-
sistor curve tracer, the CT71, that
has wide application in schools
and design labs.

ar

The D67 oscilloscope combines
dual trace, 25-MHz bandwidth,
FET inputs, regulated power sup-
plies, and all solid-state circuits
with delayed sweep capability—
a combination of features seldom
found in such a low-priced oscil-

| want to learn more about Telequipment instruments:

Name 2

Why You Should Buy
elequipment...

loscope. (Ask for the D67 article
reprint, Another Step Forward.)
Its sister scope, the D66, offers
all features but delayed sweep at
an even lower price. Both feature
a SUM mode with normal/invert
capability that improves visibility
of small signals in the presence
of common mode noise.

Tektronix supports Telequipment
with its full corporate services
and network of field engineers,
providing complete specifica-
tions, applications notes, consul-
tation and demonstrations, and
warranty. Consider the prices as
well...

Model Features Price
$51B 3MuHz,

Single-Channel $ 325
D61 10 MHz, Dual-

Channel with X-Y 545
CT71 Curve Tracer 895
D66 25 MHz,

Dual-Channel 875
D67 25 MHz Dual-

Channel, Delayed

Sweep 1,125
DM64 10 MHz, Dual-

Channel, Storage 1,195
There are many good reasons

why you should buy Telequip-
ment—some general, some spe-
cific. To learn more, contact your
local Tektronix Field Engineer or
write Tektronix, Inc., P.O. Box
500, Beaverton, Oregon 97077. In
Europe, write Tektronix Ltd., P.O.
Box 36, St. Peter Port, Guernsey,
Channel Islands.

Title

Company =e

Address. #

State

City —

L] | want a demonstration of
Field Engineer contact me.
| want the independent
magazine article reprint
onthe ([) D61 Lj D67.
E 12/26/74

Circle 29 on reader service card

Zip

C] | would like the full specifications on Telequipment instruments.

, so have a Tektronix

TEKTRONIDC
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29

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POWER
TO YOUR NEEDS

When it comes to custom-made
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Ofakim Transformers.

It designs and produces high-
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OFAKIM TRANSFORMERS LTD

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30 Circle 30 on reader service card

Electronics review

quency band of some of the compo-
nent characteristics would not mate-
rially affect measurement accuracy.

“Ideally, you would want 90°
phase shift in a quadrature hybrid,
for example,” says Hoer, “but as
long as there is some appreciable
phase shift, it is useful.”

Uncertainty. He explains that if
the system has a 1% uncertainty
when using optimum (90°) phase-
shift components, the uncertainty is
still only 2% as long as the phase
shift is within 60° of optimum—any-
where between 30° and 150°, he
says. The error in phase shift makes
the meter readings higher, and be-
cause the parameter desired is ob-
tained by taking the difference be-
tween two large numbers, the
uncertainty increases only slightly.

Power measurements with the six-
port system and with a manually
tuned system operating as a base for
comparison showed agreement
within 0.1% for low reflection coeffi-
cients, says Hoer. For higher coeffi-
cients, he expects similar, although
not quite as close, agreement.

Hoer has automated the measure-
ments by interfacing the wattmeters
and a programable signal generator
to a programable calculator. The
calculator performs the required
mathematical manipulations on the
wattmeter outputs at frequencies it
programs into the generator.

The equations themselves are
straightforward. For example, the
power at a point, P, might be ex-
pressed in the form:

P = qiP1 + q2P2 + g3P3
sa ft ct ia

where each q is a constant that is af-
fected by parameters such as phase

shifts within the six-port assembly,
and the Ps are readings on the four
wattmeters.

Hoer then determines the values
of each q by introducing known
conditions, such as pure reactances,
at the measurement plane, reading
the meters, and solving a series of
linear equations relating the power
readings and the circuit conditions.
In effect, Hoer calibrates the circuit
for its operating characteristics.

Two six-port systems are now un-
der development. One operates
from 1 gigahertz to 12 GHz, the
other, from 2 GHz to 18 GHz. fa)

Avionics

Warning system stirs
heat, but not sales

Despite the publicity given recently
to the requirement by the Federal
Aviation Agency that commercial
aircraft be outfitted with Ground
Proximity Warning Systems, the air-
lines are not rushing to buy them.
“We will not be forced into a quick
fix,’ says one spokesman for the
aviation industry, which may have
to spend $30 million to install the
GPWS in some 2,300 aircraft.

At present, there is only one
source for the system, Sundstrand
Data Control Inc., Redmond, Wash.
And it has not received any new or-
ders from any airline since the FAA
requirement was announced in Sep-
tember [Electronics, Oct. 3, p. 46].
The Sundstrand system warns the
pilot with a siren and in a loud re-
corded voice when the aircraft is not

New Way. Microwave circuit parameters are being measured at NBS without manual tuning
by six-port junction (right). Calculator (left) is programed to select signal frequencies.

WATTMETER (_)
QUADRATURE
HYBRID

WATTMETER (_ )

SIGNAL
SOURCE
FOUR-PORT

COUPLER

POWER
DIVIDER

WATT-

REFERENCE PLANE

rs COAXIAL
LOAD

(OR SIGNAL

SOURCE)

6 ways |

you can get — |

with _

desig
flexibili

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@ 500 volts (axial type) and up to 350 volts (radial
type). Temperature range from —25°C to +85°C.
Panasonic High Voltage Electrolytics are available in
capacitance tolerances from —10%, +100% ; —10%, +75%
or+20%.

Panasonic miniature electrolytics can meet most
tough design specifications that call for very close
tolerances, demanding ESR and leakage specs. We
invite your special requirements. Panasonic’s wide
range of miniature electrolytics may be the answer to
that special application problem you are trying to solve.

ee Se ee
Matsushita Electric Corp. of America 4
Industrial Division A
200 Park Avenue, New York, N.Y. 10017

__] Have a representative call.

[_] Send more information on aluminum electrolytics.

Name___
Title
Company ve ms = .
Address aoe a = es ae!

. Phone__ ee
L

Panasonic Electronic Components

our technology is all around you

Circle 31 on reader service card

Yo

AMERICAN MADE

Tolerance

SCHAUER

1-Watt

ZENERS

Immediate Shipment
Low Prices

ANY voltage from 2.0 to 16.0

Quantity
1-99
100-499
500-999
1000-4999
5000 up

Price each

All welded and
brazed assembly

No fragile
nail heads

Write for complete
rating data and other
tolerance prices.

Buy the kit-
. Save

at
on 8
war nO © .
Eee y pquauee ME ce

Kit contains a 51-piece assortment
of SCHAUER 1% tolerance 1-watt
zeners covering the voltage range
of 2.7 to 16.0. Three diodes of each
voltage packaged in reusable poly
bags. Stored in a handy file box.
Contact your distributor or order
direct.

A $54.57 value for

omy $4.50

Semiconductor Division

SCHAUER

Manufacturing Corp.
4514 Alpine Ave. Cincinnati, Ohio 45242
Telephone: 513/791-3030

32 Circle 32 on reader service card

Electronics review

gaining altitude quickly enough af-
ter take-off, if descent is too rapid
during landing, or if rising terrain
requires increased altitude.

Installations were to have been
completed by mid-1976. But, follow-
ing a crash in Virginia last month of
a Trans World Airlines Boeing 727
that killed all 92 persons aboard, the
FAA moved up the installation
schedule to December 1975.

Waiting. The airlines have not or-
dered the warning systems for sev-
eral reasons, according to officials at
the airlines and the Air Transport
Association. They claim they are
trying to add more ‘capability to
Sundstrand’s system so it will alert
pilots to more potentially dangerous
situations. And they also want to see
if the Bendix Avionics division, Fort
Lauderdale, Fla., comes up with its
integrated-circuit system by May
1975, as planned. Airlines want a
choice of systems and more time to
install them, says ATA.

An Official of the airlines’ techni-
cal consultant, Aeronautical Radio
Inc., Annapolis, Md., says it would
take the airlines about three years to
install GPWS as part of a general
maintenance schedule, although
Pan American World Airways offi-
cials say they began installing the
Sundstrand system earlier this year
and will complete 250 aircraft in
only nine months. “It’s all a ques-
tion of motivation,” says an industry
source. Arinc has yet to come up
with a GPWS technical specification,
though this is expected to be com-
pleted by early next year.

Commercial aviation has been
rocked by criticism in the aftermath
of the Virginia crash, which spurred
Congressional criticism of the FAA’s
rule-making schedule. The Air Line
Pilots Association has changed its
position on ground-proximity-warn-
ing systems and has also been criti-
cizing the FAA. Before the crash,
ALPA said the system wasn’t needed
because it increases distraction in
the cabin. But after the crash, ALPA
became an advocate. To stop the
loud warning signal and booming
“pull-up” directive of the Sundst-
rand system, the pilot must act.

Sundstrand’s market extends be-

yond the 2,300 domestic aircraft
mandated by the FAA. In the US.
alone, there are about 2,500 more
turbojet aircraft, mainly business
jets, for which systems probably will
also be purchased.

Pan American and Boeing Co.
have been Sundstrand’s best cus-
tomers. Boeing has included the
Sundstrand system on all commer-
cial aircraft it has produced since
October. Braniff International Air-
lines and Scandinavian Airlines Sys-
tem have also installed them. oO

Communications

Europe’s first
fast digital line

The British Post Office this month
unveiled a trial digital telephone
link operating at 120 megabits per
second, which it claims is the first
high-speed system to be put in the
field in Europe. Besides inaugurat-
ing the impending conversion of the
creaky English trunk telephone net-
work, the system signals the start of
digital procurements over the next
few years.

Shown this month by Standard
Telephones and Cables is a digital
line system developed for the BPO
which converts the 120-megabit
stream into a 90 megabaud ternary
line rate. The system transmits at
one end and deconverts at the re-
ceiving end. After an 18-month trial
of simulated traffic over the 40-mile
hop between Guildford and Ports-
mouth, the BPO intends to order the
first batch of equipment in 1976 for
operation in 1978. Another trial link
using digital line equipment jointly
developed by The General Electric
Co. and The Plessey Co. is planned
to go into operation in 1975 be-
tween Portsmouth and South-
ampton.

Estimated cost for the 120-Mb
line repeaters, which will go on
existing 12-megahertz trunk lines, is
about $8 million. However, although
the British chose the 120-Mb system
to get moving and to be able to use

Electronics/December 26, 1974

INPUT-

eer

SENSE

Discover how these auto-multimeters

keep

On the surface they may look like
any well-designed digital
multimeters.

Now look closer. What else do
you see?

There... the Fluke name!

That indicates unusual performance.

We designed both the Fluke 8600A
and the 8800A with auto range, auto
zero, and auto polarity. And every
parameter is fully protected. This
means you Can accidentally overload
the instrument with too much
current...too much voltage...or
too much resistance!!...and you’re
still okay.

Another way you stay out
of trouble: MTBF on each
instrument is a minimum
of 10,000 hours.

Now, the specs.

The 26-range Fluke 8600A,
$599. We packed this 20,000
count multimeter with five

ranges of volts from 200 mV

through 1200 V ac and dc. Five
ranges of current, 200 ,A to 2 A ac
and dc. And six ranges of resistance
from 200 ohms to 20 megohms.

Basic dc accuracy is a fully
credible 0.02%. Options include
built-in automatic rechargeable
battery pack for up to 8 hours off-line
operation. Digital output is also
offered.

The 0.005% Fluke 8800A, $1099.
This digital multi-
meter features five
ranges of dc volts
from £200 mV

you out of trouble.

to +1200 V. Four ranges ac from 2 V
to 1200 V. And six ranges of four
terminal resistance from 200 ohms to
20 megohms. For complete isolation
the input resistance is better than
1,000 megohms on lower ranges and
10 megohms on the higher ranges.

For critical resistance measure-
ments the instrument provides
completely isolated four terminal
ohms with less than 4 volts open
circuit from 200 ohms through
20 megohms.
So there are the specs.
_ Impressive? We think so. But
: remember—specs are

one thing. That name

on the panel, however
... It’s what makes a
Cadillac a Cadillac.
And a Fluke a Fluke.

For details, call your
nearest Fluke sales engineer.
Or simply dial our hot line.

For data out today, dial our toll-free hotline, 800-426-0361

In the continental U.S., dial our toll free number 800-426-0361 for the name and address of your nearest local

source. Abroad and in Canada, call or write the office nearest you listed below, John Fluke Mfg. Co., Inc., P.O.
Box 7428, Seattle, Washington 98133. Phone (206) 774-2211. TWX: 910-449-2850. In Europe, address Fluke Neder-
land (B.V.), P.O. Box 5053 Ledeboerstraat 27, Tilburg, The Netherlands. Phone 013-67-3973. Telex: 844-52237.
In the U.K., address Fluke International Corp., Garnett Close, Watford, WD2 4TT, England. Phone 0923-33066.
Telex: 934583. In Canada, address ACA, Ltd., 6427 Northam Drive, Mississauga, Ontario. Phone 416-678-1500.
TWX: 610-492-2119.

For demonstration circle 129 on reader service card.

FLUKE

®)

For information circle 33 on reader service card.

Keep on top
of a market in
constant evolution...

Two other sections will be de-
voted to the Press, Publications
and Official Agencies.

In addition, there will be lectures,
papers and films on technical
subjects.

Specialists in automation, meas-
urement, telecommunications,
radio & TV, electro-acoustics, data
processing, medical electronics,
photo & film, automobile elec-
tronics, electronic household ap-
pliances, toys, watch & clockmak-
ing, etc...

If you want to remain among the
best informed specialists on a mar-
ket in constant evolution, only a
great international exhibition will
allow you to size up the situation.

As in previous years, from April
2nd to 8th 1975 the 18th Salon In-
ternational des Composants Elec-
troniques will be the crossroads of
technology, the source of new
markets, the barometer of the
business, and the foremost gather-
ing place in world electronics.

The Salon International des Com-
posants Electroniques will be held
from April 2-8 inclusive (but ex-
cluding Sunday) at the Parc des
Expositions, Porte de Versailles,
Paris.

Total Floor area 61,000 M2

The equipment displayed will be

broken down into four main sec-

tions:

—Electronic Components

—Measuring Instruments

—Materials specially prepared for
electronics

—Equipment, Specific Products,
and Production Line Methods
for electronic components.

RESULTS of the 1974 SALON
| - Display area:
total 31,832.50 m2
French 18,917.91 m?
foreign 12,914.59 m?

ll - Direct exhibitors:
total 1,138
French: 517
foreign: 621
(243 U.S. exhibitors)
lll - Countries represented:
France + 23 foreign nations
IV - Visitors:
visitors identified

(w. permanent cards): 57,077
48,087
8,990
Foreign visitors came from 88

nations.
(Foreign Visitors: Up 29% over 1973)

On April 2nd, 3rd and 4th, there
will be an International Confer-
ence on the topic “Materials for
Electronic Components”. So far
improvements in materials used to
fabricate components have come
mainly from two motivations: to
better performance or cut costs.

Today, there are two further con-
cerns: raw-materials shortages
and pollution problems.

It therefore seemed of interest to
take the opportunity afforded by
the Salon International des Com-
posants Electroniques to organize
a conference. The meeting will ex-
amine ways and means to find
materials and production tech-
niques that take shortages and
pollution into account as well as
costs and performance.

for you, this year again Paris is a must

Organization S.D.S.A.

20, rue Hamelin

75116 PARIS CEDEX

Tel: 553 13 26 - Telex 25688

For U.S.A.:

FRENCH TRADE SHOWS
1350 Avenue of the Americas
NEW YORK N.Y. 10019

Tel: (212) 582 4960 1

ENTRY CARD AND BROCHURE ON REQUEST

34 Circle 34 on reader service card

Electronics review

as much of its existing hardware as
possible, it is out of phase with a
Europe-wide 140-Mb system
adopted after the British began
their’s. Thus, BPO officials have
some crucial decisions to make on
how to connect to the other system.

Links. The Post Office already op-
erates low-speed 1.536 Mb/s local
links. The new test hop extends dig-
ital PCM techniques to high-speed
longer-distance hops for regular
telephone, facsimile, television, or,
eventually, computer data trans-
mission. Speech in an ordinary tele-
phone conversation will be digi-
tized, transmitted and then reas-
sembled as the original conversa-
tion. The 120-Mb/s line can handle
up to 1,680 phone channels.

Basis for the digital network,
whether local or trunk, is a 30-voice-
channel pulse-code modulation
multiplexer which encodes audio
signals into 8-bit code and multi-
plexes them in a 2.48 Mb/s stream.

‘To step up the speed for the trunk
network, a so-called second-order
multiplexer developed by GEC com-
bines four 2.048-Mb/s streams into
a single 8.448-Mb/s stream. To kick
this up to 120 Mb/s, a third-order
multiplexer developed by Pye TMC
Ltd. combines 14 8,448-Mb/s
streams into the 120 Mb/s stream.

STC’s digital line system transmits
and receives the high-speed stream
between stations. STC will also de-
velop buried dependent regenera-
tors, powered by cable from the re-
peater stations, to maintain signal
quality at 1.2-mile intervals. The
system is basically independent of
the transmission medium, explains
Mervyn Williams, BPO’s director of
telecommunications development.
In addition to ordinary coaxial
cable, it could transmit by micro-
wave, or optical fibers, he says.

And, the new system is compat-
ible with the existing 12 megahertz
analog trunk transmission network,
using the same repeater spacing,
housing and power feeds. Com-
pared with 174-Mb/s systems in the
U.S. and Canada, the BPO system
with its narrower cable will save on
copper and installation costs and
use less repeater power. O

Electronics/December 26, 1974

For PBA, computer memory
and instrument power
supply applications

turn to CT

for cermet resistor networks

Save Space. Money. Time. It’s easy with
CTS Series 760 DIP Cermet Resistor
Networks. Four popular packages...

8, -4, -16 and -18 lead styles... provide
an infinite number of circuit combinations.

Compact, low profile design puts the
squeeze on PCB space. Cost cutters, too.
All designs eliminate lead forming and
lead trimming for low cost automatic
insertion along with IC’s and other

DIP components. Time saving? One
18-lead CTS 760 Series package can
replace up to 32 separate components.

Available without organic cover coat,

so you can trim for circuit balance.
Precision .100” leads; rated up to 2 watts
on 18 lead style; 5-Ibs. pull strength

on all leads.

Immediate delivery on standards.
Custom designs to specifications.

Be a saver. Turn to CTS of Berne, Inc.,
406 Parr Road, Berne, Indiana 46711.
Phone: (219) 589-3111.

Circle 35 on reader service card

CTS corRPoRATION
ELKHART, INDIANA
®

A world leader in cermet and variable resistor technology.

FOR USERS OF ELECTRONIC COMPONENTS

Me Pe.
SREB BLES.
ES EA

CENTRALAB

Electronics Division
GLOBE-UNION INC.
5757 NORTH GREEN BAY AVENUE
MILWAUKEE, WISCONSIN 53201

There’s no easier way to select rotary
switches — and Centralab’s standardization
program proves it.

No other line of standard rotary
switches is as complete as the
extensive new Centralab industrial
line. It’s everything that the word
standardization implies — a way
to quickly and exactly meet all
your switching requirements and
save both time and money.

The heart of this new line of
standard rotary switches is the
computer controlled factory inven-
tory of standard switch compo-
nents — with back-up stocks at
local Centralab Distributors. This
is the “bank” you draw upon in
meeting your individual require-
ments. It assures you of the right
switch, faster delivery and com-
petitive prices.

Here’s how the unique Centralab
standardization concept works for
you. The key to instant switch
selection is our new 40 page cata-
log that gives complete specifica-
tions for sub-miniature, miniature,
heavy-duty and power switches.
It also details the wide choice of
options available in shafts, bush-
ings, indexes, spacers and standard

Circle 36 on reader service card

sections. Ordering your own “spe-
cial” switch is simply a matter of
checking off your requirements
right from the catalog. You get
the right switch for your individ-
ual needs by completing the sim-
ple specification sheet supplied
and sending it to your local
Centralab representative. Gone is
the need to consult the factory.
Your local representative can also
provide complete information on
price and delivery.

Before you specify another rota-
ry switch send for the most helpful
catalog ever printed. Its 40 pages
give you all the details. Use the
reader service card or call your
Centralab representative. Discover
what standardization really means.

REFERENCE CHART

ELECTRICAL
SWITCHING

ELECTRICAL
SWITCHING
CAPACITY CAPACITY
STANDARD BRASS SILVER SILVER ALLOY
ABASEAIEVER ee
INDUSTRIAL > 281 28] 28] 28] es] ee] eg
ROTARY 4 eles 2
SWITCHES

DIAMETER

SERIES 140

CENTRALAB

STANDARD ROTARY SWITCHES
INDUSTRIAL APPLICATIONS

The wealth of engineering data in this
new catalog on Centralab’s unique line of
standard industrial rotary switches makes
it a real specifier’s handbook. It is graph-
ically simplified and color keyed for ease
of use and contains reference charts like
the one reproduced below, specifications,
dimensional drawings, application data
and easy ordering instructions. Ask for
Catalog 1611S.

MAXIMUM POSITION
& THROW IN DEGREES

INSULATION

FEATURES

SERIES 160

SERIES 050

SERIES 500

SERIES 550

SERIES 670

SERIES 710

SERIES 300

SERIES 650

SERIES 230

perspective:

New
ULTRA-KAP IL
capacitors

improved 3 ways

Ultra-Kap II doesn’t re-
place our present Ultra-Kap
line — it expandsit. You still
get more capacitance in less
space, low dissipation and
Y5F stability. In addition
you enjoy these benefits:

NEW 75V SERIES in addition to
12, 16, 25 and 50V types. There
are 3 standard values (.01, .05 and
0.1..F) to meet today’s need for
decreased size in this higher volt-
age rating.

INSULATION RESISTANCE that
is 100 times better! On a 12V
.05..F capacitor, for example, in-
sulation resistance increases
from 2 megs to 200 megs.
DIELECTRIC STRENGTH on the
new Ultra-Kap IL is rated at twice
the working voltage. A 12V type
can be used in applications hav-
ing peak voltages of 24 volts.
That's an added safety factor.

For details about new
ULTRA-KAP II, see your
Centralab Representative.

CENTRALAB
Electronics Division
GLOBE-UNION INC.
5757 NORTH GREEN BAY AVENUE
MILWAUKEE, WISCONSIN 53201

Circle 37 on reader service card

Centralab
perspeculweas

Trimmer
resistors.

Now, with
new
Snap-Tite®
rigid PC mounts.

When you specify the new
Snap-Tite rigid mount you
can simplify both installation
and assembly. Available on
both Centralab Series S car-
bon and cermet trimmer re-
sistors, it lets you snap them
into a PC board. Easy. The
mount locks the trimmer
securely into the board prior
to soldering.

Centralab gives you more
of the things you want in
trimmers. Ceramic bases for
higher wattage in a smaller
space. Smooth positive ad-
justment. A variety of choices
in mountings, terminations
and knobs. And multiple
sections too.

Send for Bulletin 1549T
so you’ll have all the

Circle 232 on reader service card

Centralab
perspeculves

Transmitter
Capacitors

dielectric
insert.

Meet Specs For
Extra Reliability
and Save 50%.

When selecting capacitors for
transmitter equipment, Cen-
tralab can help. Example: one
ceramic dielectric type can re-
place two vacuum types — in-
crease reliability — yet reduce
both weight and cost by 50%
or more. The cup type shown,
meets specs calling for 6000
pf, 10 kV and current ratings
of 100 amps at 500 kHz.

Centralab’s line of special ca-
pacitors includes header, feed-
thru, tubular, slug and water-
cooled types — plus custom
designs to meet any spec.

All it takes is a call to
Marty Hedrich at
414/228-2033.

CENTRALAB
Electronics Division
GLOBE-UNION INC
5757 NORTH GREEN BAY AVENUE
MILWAUKEE, WISCONSIN 53201

Q. what's new from
the specialists in waveform analysis?

FULL SCALE
SINGLE 99.9 ne

STEP SWEEP poo ne

AUYO SWEEP 999 us 3 WEAR RATE TRIG LEVEL NOT PRESET READY
MONITOR: veo us _

CONTINUOUS ver ve

ANALYZER

A. measurement center
makes 3,000 measurements/sec!

0.1 ns to 10s

SYSTRON @&5

Circle 38 on reader service card

More news from
the specialists in waveform analysis.

New automatic
waveform
analyzer

ends signal
seeking
problems.

38 Circle 39 on reader service card Electronics/December 26, 1974

inflation seen
offsetting 1975
aerospace gains

Two maritime-satellite
systems seek
compatibility. . .

. . and U.S.-Europe
digital-data satellite
service begins soon

Antiskid controls
for trucks, buses
to be postponed?

Electronics/December 26, 1974

Washington newsletter

U.S. aerospace sales in 1975 will reach a record $28.9 billion, up 6.8%
from this year’s forecast $27 billion, although “constant dollar figures
will continue a three-year downturn” because of inflation and recession,
says the Aerospace Industries Association. AIA president Karl G. Harr,
Jr., estimates that 1975 military aerospace sales, for example, will rise
less than 2% to $13.3 billion but “the constant dollar figure indicates a
better than 7% decline.” The National Aeronautics and Space Adminis-
tration, faced with an actual dollar drop of 4.3% to $2.4 billion next year
by AIA’s estimates, will buy 12.3% less than in 1974 (according to a con-
stant dollar scale based on 1968). Commercial aerospace sales of $8.2
billion in 1975, though gaining nearly 9% from this year, “will realize a
very slight decline in real dollar value,” says Harr.

Shipboard communications terminals designed to work with Comsat
General Corp.’s maritime satellite, Marisat, will be usable with its Eu-
ropean counterpart, Marots, if negotiations now under way between
the two systems developers are successful. Licensing arrangements are
also being negotiated between terminal makers Scientific Atlanta Inc.
and England’s Marconi Ltd. Industry officials say compatibility would
greatly expand the shipboard-terminal market, which Comsat General
predicts will go from 1,200 to about 4,500 units.

Obstacles to eventual total system compatibility are largely political,
rather than technical, says Comsat General president John Johnson,
and relate to such issues as rates, billing systems, and on-shore arrange-
ments for satellite signal distribution. Nevertheless, other Comsat Gen-
eral sources note that the expense of replacing Marots ground stations
that operate at 11-14 gigahertz with others designed to handle the 4-6-
GHz signal of Marisat may prove an obstacle for the Europeans.

Comsat General Corp.’s Digital Data Satellite Service will start oper-
ation between the United States and England in January 1975 if the
company meets the target date it set upon receiving tariff approval for
the Intelsat IV service from the Federal Communications Commission
late in December. Negotiations are under way to set up firm European
pricing structures for the 2.4-, 4.8-, and 9.6-kilobit-per-second services,
and customers are expected to include both the British post office and
carriers in Italy, Spain, France, and Germany. The international 50-
kb/s service also offered by Comsat has attracted no big users except
NASA. Comsat plans to introduce a lower-cost packet-switched DDss.

The National Highway Traffic Safety Administration seems to be re-
considering its rule requiring antiskid controls on trucks and buses.
Though the $100 electronic packages were initially required for March
1, the agency has “requested comments on the postponement or cancel-
lation” of the program—which is what the American Trucking Associ-
ation and the air-brake manufacturers have been lobbying for, on the
grounds that drivers fear electronic systems [Electronics, July 11, p. 74].
But the NHTSA says merely that the “magnitude of the costs” of the sys-
tem may be questionable in the current economic slump.

39

40

—_ aP,91
2G i ‘4 bra
[o_o 6)
‘ ;

The Pentagon’s changing priorities

Defense Secretary James R. Schlesinger may be
the “hawk-and-a-half” that many of his Penta-
gon colleagues believe him to be, but he is also
a realist. Thus he has made a number of hard
choices to cancel or curtail several weapons
programs in the fiscal 1976 budget that goes to
Congress in late January. “He had no choice,”
explains one of DOD’s budget staff, “so he made
the best of it. He made the cuts based on his
view of the priorities before someone else made
them for him.”

Schlesinger’s choices can still be altered by
the President, of course, just as they are likely
to be changed by Congress somewhat later in
the legislative process. Nevertheless, his prior-
ities are the subject of much discussion in the
year-end memos that are moving to the corpo-
rate headquarters of military electronics and
aerospace suppliers from their men in Wash-
ington.

The Navy’s good news

There is good news, for example, for General
Dynamics Corp. and Northrop Corp., whose
YF-16 and YF-17 lightweight fighters are en-
gaged in an Air Force competition. Schlesinger
has approved more money for the Navy next
year to speed up its choice of one of the planes
for use, with modification, as its new carrier-
borne air combat fighter. Some DOD sources
believe that, since the military is favorably im-
pressed with both aircraft and would like to
have both in its inventory, the Navy will opt for
the losing plane in the USAF competition—now
widely expected to be General Dynamics
Corp.’s YF-16.

Whichever way the Navy goes, Schlesinger’s
effort to hold down weapons system costs in
years ahead is bad news for Grumman Aero-
space Corp. and its costly F-14 Tomcat. The

-Navy’s fiscal 1976 budget request for the

Grumman interceptor will be cut by 14 planes
to 36 and held to that level for three years. Af-
ter that, F-14 buys will be scaled down to 24 a
year for two years before the orders stop. “Of
course, it could be worse for Grumman,” ob-
serves a defense budget source. “There are a lot
of people in Congress that would like to scuttle
that program altogether. And Schlesinger
knows that.”

Another bit of bad news for Navy aviation
advocates should turn out to be good news for
Harpoon missile prime contractor McDonnell
Douglas Corp. and its key subcontractor, Texas
Instruments. Schlesinger’s decision to cut costs
by turning over part of the Navy’s ocean sur-

on commentary

veillance and control mission to the Air Force
will result in that service equipping its B-52
bombers with Harpoon anti-shipping missiles.
Money for that is in the new budget and likely
to be approved.

Ship and missile cuts

The Navy’s seagoing sailors seem unlikely to
fare much better as a result of Schlesinger’s pri-
orities. In another economy move, sure to ap-
peal to congressional budget watchdogs, the
Defense Secretary is cancelling last year’s pro-
posed missile-launching submarine follow-on
to the new Trident, itself a follow-on to the
existing 41-boat Polaris/ Poseidon fleet. Known
as the SSBN-X, the new boat was first proposed
in last year’s budget but got nowhere in Con-
gress. With that appropriation scratched,
Schlesinger decided not to resubmit it, but to
go back to Congress next year with a substitute
proposal for a five-year submarine subsystem
technology program to identify and perform
needed R&D for future underwater weapons.

Topping that action, Schlesinger has also
called for the Navy to berth two of its fleet of
15 aircraft carriers next year and another in fis-
cal 1977. “I think those were excellent choices,”
says one budget specialist of the submarine and
carrier decisions. “The SSBN-X was only a paper
effort anyway, so nothing was really lost—and
we do have to factor in the realities of the im-
pact of contractor layoffs, especially in this
economy. As for the carriers, they will both be
old ships just about ready for retirement.”

Changing missions

To effect other economies, Schlesinger is con-
sidering other possible combinations and trans-
fers of traditional missions between services
like that of the Harpoon and the Air Force
B-52. For example, the Trident II missile with
its proposed 6,000-mile range may be taken
from the Navy’s submarine fleet and given to
the Air Force for its land-launched ICBM force.
This would leave the Navy with its 4,500-mile
Trident I while giving the Air Force a possible
substitute for its Missile-X follow-on for its
Minuteman force.

Such proposals are regarded as wreaking
havoc in the U. S. defense posture by some mil-
itary professionals, but their numbers are few.
To defense contractors and the members of
Congress who are aware of them, Schlesinger’s
decisions were well made and should allow the
services to make the most of the money that
will be available to them. —Ray Connolly

Electronics/December 26, 1974

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44 Circle 44 on reader service card Electronics/December 26, 1974

Electronics international

Significant developments in technology and business

Hitachi brightens color-television
picture tubes with mask-focusing

Mask-focusing has doubled the
brightness and contrast, as well as
reduced the power needed for de-
flection in a new color-television
picture tube developed by the Elec-
tron Tube division of Hitachi Ltd.
The first tubes are expected on the
market early next year.

The key to success of the mask-fo-
cusing picture tube is to operate the
shadow mask at low potential to
form an electron lens at each of the
apertures. The lens effect allows the
apertures to be enlarged because
electrons passing through each en-
larged aperture are focused on the
smaller phosphor dots.

Hitachi engineers overcame three
major obstacles that have prevented
development of these tubes in the
past, although the principle has
been known since the earliest days
of the color tube. They used a black-
matrix screen to reduce the degra-
dation of contrast and color satura-
tion from the secondary electrons
that conventional tubes emit from
the shadow masks. The metal shield
inside the new tube’s funnel oper-
ates at about 800 volts above the
shadow mask’s potential to collect
many of the secondary electrons.

The engineers used a segmented
discontinuous multiple lens Hitachi
had earlier developed to optically
correct the phosphor-dot pattern to
match the landing pattern of the
electron beams inside the tube’s
faceplate. Finally, they used a mul-
tifocusing gun with two unipotential
main lenses that can operate at low
voltage to obtain small spot size.
Each of these lenses is weaker than
the single main lens that would nor-
mally be used.

Electron guns in a delta configu-

Electronics/December 26, 1974

ration are enclosed in a neck 36.5
millimeters wide to ensure good
focus through use of guns having
the largest practical diameter.
Shadow masks in prototype tubes,
because of the focusing effect on
electrons headed for the aperture
edges, have an electron trans-

Around the world

parency exceeding 50%. Lower vol-
tage and deflection power reduce
heating of masks by electron bomb-
ardment to about 25% that of con-
ventional tubes. Heating and con-
sequent expansion of the mask are
reduced, and it is unnecessary to
compensate for heat distortion.

Parallel operation speeds up I?L microprocessor

The search for a standard device has led to a microprocessor based on in-
tegrated injection logic that attains high speeds through parallel operation.
The P-8, built by RTC-La Radiotechnique Compelec, for Electronique Mar-
cel Dassault (EMD), is now a custom chip that will be used in the next gen-
eration of EMD microcomputers. But the P-8, so called because it pro-
cesses 8-bit words in parallel, is being considered as an eventual standard
catalog item. And it meets military temperature specifications.

Because of parallel processing, logic operations take 900 nanoseconds
at most, and arithmetic operations on 8-bit words last no longer than 1.2 mi-
croseconds. Maximum power consumption is a thrifty 400 milliwatts. A logic
block performs 11 operations such as intersection, exclusion, and jumps.
There’s an arithmetic unit plus a block for forward-carry operations. These
three main working blocks are linked to input and output registers through a
pair of multiplexers and an 8-bit eight-channel shift register.

Three other main blocks handle control, tests, and three-state outputs.
The output logic circuits interface the internal I?L circuitry to TTL. The P-8,
which contains the equivalent of 520 gates plus |/O interfaces, has an area
of 15 square millimeters and is mounted in a 40-pin ceramic package.

Siemens drives for MOS leadership in Europe

In a drive to become the top MOS manufacturer in Europe, West Germany’s
Siemens AG is relying on the latest available technology. The company is
consolidating all its production in an $8 million facility containing 10,000
square feet for initial production of $40 million worth of devices a year.

To produce high-performance logic and memory chips, the company has
developed the ESFI (epitaxial silicon film on insulator) process, which re-
quires few production steps. For particulary small memory structures, Sie-
mens will soon use an n-channel silicon-gate process. The company, which
has already developed nearly 200 MOS circuits, has been relying primarily
on p-channel metal-gate technology with ion-implantation to reduce circuit
operating voltages and depletion-load techniques for devices with low and
widely varying voltages, as well as low power dissipation.

The new center, built around six diffusion ovens and three ion-implanta-
tion systems has achieved ultrahigh purity of water and air. Erich Gelder, IC
product manager, predicts that the MOS market, now more than $800 mil-
lion a year, will climb at a dazzling 30% annually.

45

Announcing the age of the P-ROM...
The amazing little chip that gives you

The Sharp Edge.

P-ROM’s available, such as for statis-
tics, surveying, mathematics and'the
easiest metric conversion you could
imagine.

What on earth is the P-ROM?
It’s a unique little educated chip
programmed to do up to 256 steps

for you — automatically! An out of
this world concept? Not any more.

Introducing the Sharp PC-1002 —
the 15 scientific function calculator,
another “‘first’” from Sharp, the
Qualitronics Company. (We gave
America its very first electronic calcu-
lator back in 1964!)

Most keys on the PC-1002 are dual
function. But the real key to the
Sharp PC-1002 is which P-ROM you
choose when you buy it. There are
many different interchangeable

46 Circle 46 on reader service card

In fact, you and the Sharp PC-1002

can handle problems like inverse trigo-
nometric, hyperbolic trigonometric,
exponential, logarithmic, factorial and
azimuth calculations, polar to rectang-
ular coordinates, and degrees, minutes,
and seconds to decimal equivalents.
We gave our PC-1002 a 10-digit
mantissa and a 2-digit exponent.

The display appears in large,

green numerals and the case is molded
ot high-impact material for durability.
These human touches make the
PC-1002 and most every Sharp calcu-
lator easier to operate and as mistake-
proof as possible.

Our new PC-1002 marks the age

of the P-ROM —it can put you a step
ahead of the next person. Another
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Electronics/December 26, 1974

Japan’s EIA sees
electronics growth
of 19.9% a year

Post Office ups
phone-exchange
request in UK

French develop
exotic instruments
for detection

Electronics/December 26, 1974

international newsletter

Production of industrial and professional electronic equipment in Ja-
pan in fiscal 1978 will be worth $6.3 billion. This is 2.47 times the figure
for fiscal 1973 and will represent an average growth of 19.9% a year,
predicts the Electronic Industries Association of Japan. Leading in pro-
duction and growth rates will be computers and associated equipment.
Production will be $4.46 billion, which is 2.7 times the 1973 level and
represents an average growth of 22% a year.

A sector that includes test and measuring instruments, as well as pro-
cess controls, is forecast to reach a total of $583 million which is a five-
year increase of 2.37 times, a growth rate of 18.8% a year. Non-commu-
nications wireless equipment, which includes radar and other naviga-
tion and meteorological equipment, will total $346 million, an increase
of 2.13 times and a rate of 16.3% a year. A miscellaneous industrial cat-
egory that includes ultrasonic equipment and industrial television will
total $177 million, doubling in five years, at an annual rate of 14.8% a
year. The lowest growth rate will be registered by communications
equipment. Fixed and mobile gear will reach $649 million, an increase
of 1.92 times and a growth rate of 13.9% a year. Television and radio-
broadcast transmitters will reach $85 million, an increase of 1.34 times
and a growth rate of 6% a year.

Suppliers of telephone-exchange equipment may get a New Year
treat if the government approves the British Post Office budget. It calls
for acquisition of semielectronic TXE4 telephone exchanges to be
boosted by 20% to $550 million by 1980. Standard Telephone and Ca-
bles already has a head start in building the first 20 units, and the ITT
subsidiary has contracted to build a prototype at reduced cost.

Although GEC and Plessey will have a crack at later orders, all three
will have to share the total main-exchange market with a newcomer,
Pye TMC, a Philips subsidiary. The three traditional suppliers are ex-
pected to approve BPO intentions that Pye later become a fourth main-
exchange supplier for a market estimated at $380 million a year.

Watch for some out-front detection instruments to hit the market in
France in the next year or so. Initial versions of a Josephson-effect
magnetometer and a cadmium-telluride gamma-ray detector, for ex-
ample, turned up at the year-end 65th Physics Exposition in Paris. The
magnetometer, developed at a laboratory of the nuclear energy agency,
Commissariat 4 l’Energie Atomique (CEA), can pick up fields as feeble
as 10-14 gauss, about one thousandth the earth’s magnetic field. The
Josephson junction in the instrument is fabricated from a layer of nio-
bium evaporated onto a quartz rod 2 millimeters in diameter; it oper-
ates at a temperature of 4.2K. Field strengths are determined by mea-
suring impedance changes in the detector with a special LC circuit.

The CdTe gamma-ray detector, by contrast, works at room tempera-
ture instead of the usual liquid-nitrogen temperatures needed for silicon
or germanium detectors. It’s the work of Laboratoires d’Electronique et
de Physique Appliquée of the Philips group. LEP developed a solvent-
zone crystal-pulling technique to get CdTe monocrystals pure enough

47

48

Two new minis aid
Panafacom’s drive
for 40% of market

German group wins
bid for drone
target-locater

EMI’s CRT console
shows brain X-rays

Two Norwegian firms
win foreign
electronics pacts

International newsletter

for the detector. The detector proper is paired with a preamplifier only
10 millimeters in diameter in a pen-size probe.

Two 8-bit minicomputers have been introduced by Panafacom Ltd.
in its latest effort to capture 40% of the Japanese minicomputer market.
This would entail building 5,000 of the new machines in the next four
years. Panafacom is the joint venture that has taken over the mini-
computer-manufacturing operations of Fujitsu Ltd. and Matsushita
Communication Industrial Co. The Panafacom U-300 and U-400, which
are equivalent to the Digital Equipment Corp. PDP-11/35 and PDP-
11/45, are larger models of the U-200 introduced earlier, of which 700
have been sold.

Both new models are available with either semiconductor or core
memory, and both have submicrosecond cycle times. They have 12 in-
terrupt levels. Instruction length is 16 bits. The U-300 has a memory ca-
pacity of 64,000 8-bit bytes, and the U-400 has a capacity of 256,000 8-
bit bytes. Delivery of the U-300 is to begin in June and the U-400 in
October. The line is expected to be extended to both smaller and larger
systems for hierarchy and networking applications.

A contract for an experimental unmanned military reconnaissance
aircraft has been awarded to a consortium of West German companies
headed by VFW-Fokker, Bremen. The drone will be used by the West
German Defense Ministry in the second phase of the remotely piloted
vehicle program to test the use of video sensors for target-acquisition
and identification. For the first phase, a manned aircraft will transmit
data to a mobile command station containing monitors and receivers.

A $40,000 mobile diagnostic console from Britain’s EMI Ltd. shows
computer-enchanced X-rays of the brain remote from the X-ray scan-
ner. Introduced this month in Chicago at an exhibition of the Radio-
logical Society of North America, the console extends the capabilities
of EMI’s two-year-old $350,000 scanner. The new scanner is a comput-
erized axial tomography system that takes thousands of X-ray readings
of layers of the brain. But instead of film, sensitive crystal detectors
record variations in light intensities as they rotate around a patient’s
head. The console’s 12-inch cathode-ray tube displays computer-corre-
lated pictures of the brain tissue.

Two Norwegian electronics firms have made breakthroughs in inter-
national competition. Bidding against manufacturers in the U.S., UK,
and West Germany, A/S Nera has received orders totaling about
$300,000 for a Norwegian-developed instrument-landing system, to be
installed in Athens, Greece, and Vaexjoe, Sweden.

Norsk Dataelektronikk has won its first non-European order with a
contract for almost $3 million for a World Meteorological Organization
(WMO) communications center to be located in Algeria. Equipment in-
cludes Norsk computers and peripherals, plus other electronic equip-
ment for processing meteorological data. The WMO center will provide
weather information mainly to North and West African nations.

Electronics/December 26, 1974

Distributors Wanted.

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SOCKET
2K Byte for 2 K Byte
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TTY/Display Interface
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BAUD RATE
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«Double Europe» standard

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Electronics/December 26, 1974 Circle 49 on reader service card 49

50

Take the gamble out of trimmer buying.

Three of the winners in our extensive cermet
trimmer line can give you a sure jackpot, be-
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Pick the 3/8” square, single-turn, sealed
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And after all that, if exceptional setability

Circle 50 on reader service card

and 100 ppm°C tempco isn’t enough, think of
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Considering the stakes in your own compet-
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If you need immediate technical literature
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HELIPOT DIVISION

Electronics/December 26, 1974

Probing the news

Analysis of technology and business developments

a

Working space. New building at Bell Labs in Murray Hill, N.J.

Does Bell Labs live up to reputation?

Basic research is outstanding, says study for FCC, but slowness
is found in responding to needs of operating companies

by Ray Connolly, Washington bureau manager

By almost any measure, the position
of Bell Laboratories is No. | in the
world telecommunications commu-
nity. Funded jointly by its parents,
the American Telephone & Tele-
graph Co. and AT&T’s manufac-
turing arm, Western Electric Co.,
Bell Labs operates on an annual
budget in excess of $500 million.
That bankroll pays the salaries of
more than 16,000 persons who an-
nually publish about 2,300 papers,
and, more important, collect an esti-
mated 700 patents a year—more
than any other organization in the
world. That is part of the image that
Bell Labs and its corporate owners
like it to have, an image that’s tar-
nished in several spots.

Electronics/December 26, 1974

“The basic research effort at Bell
Laboratories is outstanding,” says
New York consultant Touche, Ross

‘ & Co. in a contract study that is part

of the Federal Communications
Commission investigation of the in-
terrelationships between Western
Electric and the rest of the Bell sys-
tem. Yet that is not all that Touche,
Ross concludes about Bell Labs in
its 132-page analysis and nine sepa-
rate appendixes of supporting docu-
mentation [Electronics, Dec. 12,
p. 53]. The study is made even more
timely by the Federal antitrust suit
against AT&T.

Despite its mom-and-apple-pie
image in basic telecommunications
research, Bell Labs is found wanting

in terms of translating its achieve-
ments into applications that will im-
prove the U.S. telephone system.
“There is a relative lack of follow-
up, once a field has been estab-
lished,” reports Touche, Ross. Bell
Labs is “slow in coming out with
improved products, with design
changes, and with adoptions of new
technology in established areas.”
What’s more, the study finds Bell
Labs to be unresponsive to the
needs of the operating telephone
companies and their customers.
While Touche, Ross attributes this
in large part to the lack of any for-
mal mechanism for interaction be-
tween the operating companies and
Bell Labs, it notes that the labora-

51

Probing the news

tories have been working to over-
come the problem “in part due to
pressures from the operating com-
panies themselves and in part due to
operating companies purchasing
from non-Bell sources.”

Disagreeing, a Bell Labs official
says the study apparently overlooks
many engineering improvements in
alleging a lack of follow-up. He cites
more than 200 improvements in the
basic phone set, and more than
6,000 changes in the No. 5 crossbar
switch. Pointing to product follow-
up, he mentions the expansion in
capacity of the TD2 microwave ra-
dio system to 16,500 simultaneous
calls from 2,400.

As for the charge of a lack of re-
sponsiveness to operating com-
panies’ needs, the Bell official says
there have been constant develop-
ments, ranging from small (an im-
proved drop wire) to large (elec-
tronic switching and long-haul
coaxial cable systems).

Bigness. The huge size of Bell
Labs has advantages, as well as lim-
itations, in the view of Touche,
Ross, but most of the advantages re-
late to the peculiar needs of AT&T
and the Bell System. “No other tele-
phone company in the world re-
quires the size of central-office

The boss. W.O. Baker, president of Bell
Labs. Study says his lab gets high marks in
research, but lags in some other areas.

equipment which is needed to ser-
vice large metropolitan areas in the
U.S.,” the study notes, adding that
with its enormous resources, “Bell
Labs has demonstrated a unique ca-
pability to develop large-scale sys-
tems” such as the No. 5 crossbar, the
No. 1 electronic switching system,
and the traffic-service-position sys-
tem for distributing calls among op-
erators on the basis of service load.

Disadvantages of Bell Labs’
“somewhat ponderous” size and re-
sultant dispersion of effort are the
“internal communications diffi-
culties, while some overlap in job
functions and project cases” has re-
sulted.

Moreover, the laboratories suffer,
says Touche, Ross, from “a hes-
itancy to utilize technology which
was not invented by BTL.

Not all of Bell Labs’ problems are
of its own creation, however. In-
deed, much of the evidence from
Touche, Ross and elsewhere indi-
cates that some significant criticisms
of the labs have their origin within
Western Electric.

For example, the criticism that
the laboratories are unresponsive to
telephone customers’ needs is laid
by Touche, Ross to a “poor market-
ing structure and is evidenced in in-
creased consumer purchasing” from
non-Bell companies. By creating a
marketing organization, however,
AT&T and its affiliates are respond-
ing to this competitive challenge.

Responsibility. Whose fault is it
that Bell Labs is slow to develop
new products for applications other
than switching? At first glance, the
responsibility would appear to be
Western Electric’s, since AT&T pays
for “basic research and system-engi-
neering studies,’ while “Western
Electric is billed for applied re-
search” and pays “on a case-by-case
basis for product development.”

Indeed, if money talks as loudly
at Bell Labs as it does in the R&D
operations of other companies,
Western Electric should clearly have
more clout than AT&T in directing
the laboratories’ efforts. In 1974,
Western Electric picked up the tab
for an estimated $283 million. By
comparison, AT&T’s share was
$198.4 million. Nevertheless, Bell
Labs’ record of the distribution of
those funds indicates that just about

all of Western Electric’s money went
for R&D that was about equally di-
vided among three areas—systems
for switching, transmission, and
electronics technology.

Yet the Touche, Ross analysis of
Western Electric’s role in AT&T’s
product-development cycle shows
the manufacturing company has
little actual responsibility in the de-
cision-making process. The decision
of whether or not a new product is
needed rests with AT&T and the op-
erating company that raises the
question. In contrast, AT&T and the
laboratories determine whether a
commercial product is available or
whether Bell Labs’ exploratory de-
velopment is needed. Western Elec-
tric becomes involved only in decid-
ing whether or not a specific Bell
Labs effort should be undertaken,
and then it participates only as a
member of a tri-company council.
“Indications are,” says the report,
“that Western Electric’s involve-
ment in these decisions is of a sup-
plementary and advisory nature.”

Conclusions. Nevertheless, the
consultants report to the FCC that
“Western Electric’s efficient per-
formance has resulted in lower costs
than otherwise would have been in-
curred. Because of Western’s pricing
policies and practices,” the Touche,
Ross study goes on, “these lower
costs have not increased profits, but
have been passed on to operating
companies [as] lower prices.”

That encomium troubles a num-
ber of FCC staffers, however, partic-
ularly when it is coupled with the
consultant’s later conflicting obser-
vations that “the unique relation-
ship Western Electric enjoys as the
manufacturing arm of the Bell Sys-
tem makes performance compari-
sons with other companies impos-
sible.”

Some FCC staffers are highly criti-
cal of what they call the “waffling”
of Touche, Ross & Co. on such is-
sues as costs and pricing by Western
Electric. Yet they are convinced
that, in view of the specific criticisms
raised about the operations of Bell
Laboratories, the need for increased
competition in American tele-
communications is genuine, since it
has provided one of Bell Labs’ big-
gest incentives to develop new
equipment. oO

Electronics/December 26, 1974

We feel a little flag-waving
is called for

After all, it's not every day a Spanish company
opens a manufacturing plant in the USA.
Especially in the highly competitive world of
electronics.

But that’s just what we've done. Bearded the
electronic giants in their own dens.

Our new American den is in Boston. Right
now we're manufacturing carbon film resistors
—with other component lines to follow - on our
own specially designed machines, drawing on
the identical advanced technology and
production techniques that have taken us to the
top in Europe.

And we know this little bit of flag-waving will
catch the eye of our European customers.
They'll appreciate how the extra production
from our US plant will ease their own deliveries
in Europe. We will no longer have to divert so
much of our European capacity across the

Atlantic. So everybody benefits.

To our American friends we Say, ‘Happy to be
inthe USA". We know a// our customers are
going to be happy we are.

Find out more about Piher. A leader in
component technology.

PIHER International Corp., (Sales Office)
1239 Rand Road, Des Plaines, Illinois 60016.
Tel: 312-297 1560 Telex: 282514

PIHER Corp., (Manufacturing Plant)
399 Washington Street, Woburn, Mass. 01801
Tel: 617-935 8750 Telex: 94-9382

wi PIHHER

Circle 53 on reader service card

ame first name in counters
is not the counter you name first

We aren’t as well known ATE. For more accurate Yet prices start at $1,390.
for our counters as we are for waveform parameter So before you talk to the
our digital multimeters. But testing, the counters feature biggest name in counters, talk to
we should be. Because we digitally programmed the best. Contact your Dana
make some of the best counters trigger-level resolution of sales representative by calling
available for the money. .05 volts and trigger-level toll-free 800-645-9200. In New

The nine models in our hysteresis compensation. York, phone 516-294-0990. In
8000B/8100 series feature Communications. For Europe, call 02-241-4550.
measurements such as low-level, high-frequency
frequency, period, multiple measurements, sensitivity
period, time interval, time as high as one millivolt at
interval average and totalize 500 MC is featured.
modes. bee Counters also employ a 150

A standard 8-digit display MC direct count capability.

provides high resolution
measurements. Models feature
10 nanosecond resolution for a

single shot time events along SS nen : .
with 150 picosecond resolution SS ot ont
for repetitive events. ——— nn? i \

ee

Others measure by us.

Circle 54 on reader service card

Probing the news

Memories

Josephson tunneling shows promise

IBM’s success with experimental memory and logic circuits
underlines interest of computer makers in the technology

by Laurence Altman, Solid State Editor

The Josephson-junction effect, that
ice-cold technology that operates at
4°K, close to the temperature where
molecular structures freeze, contin-
ues to be a hot research project at
some semiconductor laboratories.
The reason: devices built with Jo-
sephson junctions could potentially
operate thousands of times faster
than today’s devices, while consum-
ing orders of magnitude less power
in configurations that are as-
tonishingly small—hundreds of
thousands of elements of memory or
logic could be packed on a chip no
larger than standard sizes now in
production.

That’s why International Business
Machines Corp. and other major
manufacturers of large computers,
as well as Government-funded re-
search laboratories, are deeply in-
volved in the technology. Although
the Josephson effect has been
known for more than a decade, and
exploratory devices demonstrating
the effect have been around for
years, materials technology and fab-
rication skills have only recently be-
gun to make feasible the building of
memory and logic devices such as
gates and static shift registers.

True, production-quality Joseph-
son junction devices are still several
years away because many basic
problems still exist. Nevertheless,
IBM has built memory and logic cir-
cuits and has even fabricated an ex-
perimental 8-bit shift register that
shifts at a rate of 160 megahertz.
With this device, power dissipation
was only 20 microwatts per bit, in
contrast to current state-of-the-art
shift registers, which burn about 0.5
milliwatt per bit. Also, in papers
presented last month at the Inter-

Electronics/December 26, 1974

national Electron Devices Meeting,
IBM’s researchers say that computer
simulation shows that the present
design, with an improved power
configuration, could shift at 360
MHz—about 150 times faster than
today’s devices.

IBM managed to attain these high
data rates even though their early
devices were built with relatively
large 1-mil line widths. It’s esti-
mated that normal 5-micrometer
geometries in optimized configura-
tions could increase the speed 10 to
100 times.

How it’s built. The simplest way
to take advantage of Josephson tun-
neling—the tunneling of electron
pairs through a thin insulating bar-
rier between two superconducting
materials—is to realize that a mag-
netic flux linked with super-
conducting loops can be trapped,
thus setting up a persistent circulat-
ing current in the loop (see illustra-
tion). With this simple arrangement,
the direction of current flow—clock-
wise or counter-clockwise—can be

made to represent the required
binary information.

To use the principle of flux trap-
ping, a thin-film superconducting
loop is built that consists of three Jo-
sephson tunneling devices, one for
writing, one for reading, and one for
controlling the read-write operation.
Then a common control line is pro-
vided for the writing and control
elements, while a word line connects
the memory-cell loops in the array’s

Separation. In this Josephson tunneling
device, oxide film separates three elements
to produce control and gate currents.

Data transfer. Two three-input gates (operating in master-slave mode from external clocks
|; and lp transfer data from Q,; to Qe and Qz to Q3 by strobe pulses IC; and IC».

55

Opulahagemand, are8 more.

!

; | "
2

Probing the news

Together. Three Josephson tunneling de-
vices form memory cell. A is for writing, S is
nondestructive readout controlled by B

column and a separate sense line
connects the read devices in an ar-
ray’s row.

To form a shift register, IBM cas-
caded two three-input Josephson
gates (Q; and Qs» in the illustration)
in series and operated them in a
master-slave mode from an external
| clock. The data is transferred from
| Q: to Qe and then to Q3 in normal
shift-register fashion by virtue of
two strobe pulses (IC; and IC2). The
pulse levels were designed to ensure
that a data 1 condition would pro-
duce conduction at least three times
the value of threshold condition,
thus guaranteeing reliable oper-
ation.

What’s coming. In this way, shift
registers 3 to 8 bits long were fabri-
cated with the 1-mil line width. Two
| levels of superconducting inter-
connections were used to duplicate
standard fabrication techniques.
IBM experimenters are encouraged
by the operation of these four-phase
shift registers.

Yet the question remains: Can
these devices and their required
passive components be built in an IC
form with sufficiently high yield and

reliability?
DIS ae PRERENDER ERE Ae SRO oe a” VA a Sa The problem is that the all-impor-
tant threshold currents depend
strongly on the thickness of the ox-
ide tunnel barrier, which must be
controlled to a fraction of an ang-
strom—and this is beyond today’s
production capabilities. The rf-sput-
ter-and-oxidation technique with
which IBM built these barriers is ba-
sically a laboratory method, say
many observers. O

E. F. JOHNSON COMPANY

56 Circle 56 on reader service card Electronics/December 26, 1974

The new Esterline Angus
PD2064 Key Programmable Data
System uses a microprocessor,
memory and a simple keyboard to
multiply data acquisition capability
and assure extraordinary flexibility.

You program up to 248 channels
with one finger. The system gathers
analog and digital data, measures
the conditioned signal, supplies
time base, engineering units, and
outputs the data on a self-contained
printer—at any scan rate up to 25
channels per second.

Or it will feed a teletypewriter, a
magnetic or paper tape recorder, or
computer as well.

Key Programmable capabilities
include high/low alarm logic, |/O,

formatting functions, and optional
features.

Two basic design ideas make this
the best value data system around:
1. Versatility based on proven RAM,
ROM, PROM, and microprocessor
circuitry. Key-program the entire
system or one channel at atime, and
2. Unprecedented attention to signal
guarding and isolation from noise
as found in the worst industrial or
field environments—200 VDC com-
mon mode capability.

For laboratory, field, test cell,
process, or facility monitoring at an
unlikely low price, check out the
PD2064. Any way you finger it, it’s a
smart new data system. Request Bul-
letin B110 from Esterline Angus
Instrument Corporation, Box 24000,
Indianapolis, IN 46224.

8
TL.
PL
pee

Low level sensing to 1 microvolt
resolution, programmable gains,
automatic signal source check.

Handles four types of multiple
thermocouples, millivolts, volts,
nonlinear functions, current,
digital BCD inputs.

Measurement-immune to noise,
uses fully guarded circuits and
dual slope integration with one
cycle sample period.

100-day, 1 sec. resolution clock,
battery-saver electronics, self-
calibration—ideal for field use.

Microprocessor memory allows
optional special SMART programs
such as ratios, rates of change,
standard deviation, all math func-
tions, dedicated system programs
with keyboard override.

A UNIT OF ESTERLINE CORPORATION

Circle 57 on reader service card

_ Inside Disney’s new world

Space Mountain and Home of the Future are typical
of sophisticated use of computers in park

by Gerald Walker, Associate Editor

As they fly on a “space ride,” then
ride on a moving walkway past a
futuristic home, few visitors to Walt
Disney World’s new Space Moun-
tain attraction, which opens next
month, will be able to catch their
breath to appreciate the role elec-
tronics plays in the entertainment.
But electronics plays two roles at
Space Mountain; first, the here and
now, manifested by commputer con-
trol of the ride; and second, the To-
morrowland, presented in the Home
of Future Living that follows the
ride. Space Mountain marks the cul-
mination of almost 10 years of de-
sign and construction involving Dis-
ney organizations and RCA Corp.
Together with the futuristic people-
mover, called WED-Way, and Gen-
eral Electric’s Carousel of Progress
due later next year, as well as the
Star Jets ride, the mountain com-
pletes for now the major attractions
at the $500 million-plus Walt Dis-
ney World Magic Kingdom.
Statistics for Space Mountain are
impressive—it’s 183 feet high, con-
tains more than 4.5 million cubic
feet, and cost more than the original
Disneyland. But the main objective
here, as elsewhere in Walt Disney
World, is to put on a good show. In

58

so doing, the designers and builders
have come up with an unusual
blend of electronic controls and
audio-visual effects. Interestingly,
those designers are not electronics
engineers—they are mostly film
people and animators whose interest
is in entertaining, not advancing the
state of the art. They use a great
deal of electronics only because it
gives them what they want.

Up the mountain. While three
computer systems at Disney World
handle functions common to many
locations, the Data General Corp.
Nova minicomputer assigned to
Space Mountain is dedicated.

Its main job is safety and traffic
control for the twin indoor roller-
coaster rides. Actually, the only
thing in common between the Space
Mountain ride and the typical out-
door roller coaster is that both run
on guideways. Because of the size
and layout of the building and the
precise timing of car-dispatching by
the minicomputer, this attraction
will be able to accommodate 3,000
visitors an hour. Essentially, the
Nova supports human dispatchers
and monitors zones of the ride,
keeping the cars evenly spaced.

Just as Space Mountain has been

Space Mountain. A new landmark at To-
morrowland, the Disney World Space Moun-
tain (above) features a computer-controlled
thrill ride and a view of an electronic home of
the future. Computers at the park also moni-
tor services and security (below).

Electronics/December 26, 1974

derived from a previous attraction—
the Matterhorn Mountain Bobsled
at Disneyland—the next special ride
scheduled for Walt Disney World
will be a takeoff on the space flight.
This is the people-mover being de-
veloped by WED Enterprises, Glen-
dale, Calif., the R&D and creative
power behind both parks.

Says Harry Mason, manager of
audio animatronics (animated fig-
ures) and computers for Walt Dis-
ney World, “What we’ve learned
about traffic-control dispatching in
Space Mountain has made us super-
optimistic about making the WED-
Way people-mover work. Six
months ago, I would not have been
as ready to predict success.”

The computers. The more sophis-
ticated the show, the more impor-
tant computer control has been.
This is true throughout the 2,500-
acre resort area located at Lake
Buena Vista, Fla., 20 miles outside
Orlando. There are four major
nonaccounting computer systems.

The most unusual is the DACS
computer, for Digital/Analog Con-
trol Systems, that runs totally auto-
mated shows involving audio ani-
matronics. An Astrodata Inc.
machine (built to Disney specifica-

Electronics/December 26, 1974

Fun. ‘Space ride”’
(left), is elaborate, in-
door roller-coaster type
trip with many visual ef-
fects. In RCA’s Home of
Future Living, inside
Space Mountain, a §&
businessman of the fu-
ture (above) conducts a
meeting by two-way
satellite television; his
wife (right) shops and
monitors activities
throughout the house
via television.

tions before the computer company
went out of the business) programs
magnetic disks that “play” each of
the many shows at the park.

Audio animatronics got its show-
business start in electromechanical
form at Disneyland in California.
However, Walt Disney World ad-
vanced the technique into complete
computer control. When the DACS
computer is not programing the
playing disks, it monitors a certain
number of key functions at each of
the shows. So, for example, the
spotlights trained on each President
during a roll call are monitored to
make sure none is burned out. This
procedure is a backup on the oper-
ating personnel who also make peri-
odic checks on performances.

A second computer system, AMCS
for Automatic Monitoring and Con-
trol Systems, could potentially be
applied in other industrial or gov-
ernment enterprises. Designed by
RCA, AMCS employs two Data Gen-
eral Nova machines to monitor fire
and security alarms, air-condi-
tioning, and refrigerators.

A more standard operation is the
Leeds & Northrup Co. computer
control of the entire resort’s electri-
cal-distribution system. A control

panel of 15 feet by 45 feet instantly
indicates the status of power de-
mands and use at the resort.

The RCA Home of Future Living
at Space Mountain also fits this pat-
tern of sophistication. Meant to be a
rather quick look at communi-
cations, entertainment, and com-
puter-aided education in the home,
this exhibit is both an amusement
for today and a framework for the
future. Visitors will see a man con-
ducting a business meeting via satel-
lite in his living room by means of a
two-way TV set no larger than an at-
taché case. Meanwhile, mom takes a
pottery course from a video library
and displayed on a large screen.
Tiny television cameras monitor the
entrances and keep an eye on baby.

In another group of settings, a
boy does his homework while sitting
at a computer console. Another boy
practices skiing on a simulator with-
out leaving his room. While a
woman shops by video on a screen
in the kitchen, two youngsters watch
a television program on a wall-size
screen in the den. Finally, to show
that interests won’t change too
much, a teenager lounges in her
room enjoying a video recording
disk and talking onthe phone. [J

59

=a We ™
oe SS a
WN a

jae _—

ti <

: Le4 a4
4 Pom,
SAAC H HN EaTeRKangQennees

Why RCA can shed
a lot of new light
on your need for Linear ICs.

Recent new announcements from RCA.

Type
CA3600

CA3100
CA3099
CA3097
CA3130
CA3127
CA3096

CA3095

International: RCA, Sunbury-on-Thames, UK. RCA, Fuji Building, 7-4 Kasumigaseki, 3-Chome, Chiyoda-Ku, Tokyo, Japan. RCA Limited, Ste. Anne de Bellevue 810, Canada.

Linear COS/MOS Array
Wideband Op Amp
Programmable Comparator

SCR Transistor Array

UHF Five-Transistor Array

NPN-PNP Transistor Array

Super Beta Array

Description Features
Simplicity plus
high impedance
High slew rate
plus stability
Micropower plus
programmability
Low cost plus
density

PMOS/Bipolar/CMOS Op-Amp _ High performance

plus simplicity
Low cost plus
matching
Density plus
flexibility
Super gain
Hy: > 1000

If you’re looking for the
newest ideas in linear ICs check
the chart above. Here are eight
important new LIC devices. All
originated and announced by
RCA within the past year. Arrays,
op amps, and a programmable
comparator which might help you
achieve new design objectives.

Our five-transistor array
might help you save some
money. Our super Beta array
could give you the extra gain you
want. And our CA3096 is in-
tended to help you achieve
greater product density.

Our ability to combine tech-
nologies on a single LIC chip can
be important to you, too. It pro-
duced a higher slew rate with
stable operation in the CA3100
which incorporates both bipolar
and PMOS elements.

In the CA3130 we took the
multiple-technology-on-a-chip
idea one step further to bring you
a highly versatile performer at
low cost. Combining PMOS/FET,

bipolar and CMOS, RCA made
possible, for the first time,

a voltage swing to within 10
millivolts of either rail in single
power supply operation. Yet,
despite its many features, despite
its sophistication and inherent
reliability, you can buy the
CA3130 for just 75¢ in quantities
of IK.

If these new RCA linear IC
developments come as news to
you, you should also know that
we can produce a custom circuit
to meet your special require-
ments. Or supply you with the
popular industry standards such
as the 301A, 307, 311 and 339
families, or supply you with
premium types such as 101A,
107, 108A and 111, which you
probably have had a hard time
getting. The fact is, RCA is a full-
house in linear ICs. In addition to
product, this means a wide range
of packages, and complete
engineering support.

Contact your RCA distributor
and have him fill your order.
And if what you need isn’t a stock
item, address your inquiry direct-
ly to RCA.

For more information, and
a free cross reference guide and
wall chart, call your local RCA
Solid State distributor, or write
RCA Solid State, Box 3200,
Somerville, N.J. 08876. Phone
(201) 722-3200, Ext. 3145.

RGA s::.

A full house in Linear ICs.

Circle 61 on reader service card

Probing the news

Instrumentation

Air-monitoring grows complex

System integrated by Rockwell is being studied by U.S. in St. Louis test;
data-collection instruments were developed in past few years

by Paul Franson, Los Angeles bureau manager

The attention of environmental en-
gineers is focused on St. Louis.
There, with electronic hardware in a
dominant role, the U.S. Environ-
mental Protection Agency is about
to crank up an ambitious pollution-
detection study aimed at estab-
lishing a model monitoring system
that could be used elsewhere.

The study, called RAPS for re-
gional air-pollution study, a five-
year, $22 million program, is now
completing test and acceptance. The
$2 million hardware portion, called
RAMS for regional air-monitoring
system, has been put together by
Rockwell International’s Science
Center in Thousand Oaks, Calif. It
is perhaps the most complex and
up-to-date sensor and data-acquisi-
tion network ever assembled for
such work.

RAMS consists of an extensive
data-collection network that has
been integrated with air-monitoring
instruments that have become prac-
tical, says William L. Dowdy, man-
aging director of Rockwell’s Air
Monitoring Center,
only in the past two or
three years. The sys-
tem consists of 25
monitoring stations
within a 50-mile
radius of the Gateway
Arch in. St. Lous,
which was chosen be-
cause it is a typical big
American city and be-
cause its meteorology
is already well known
and predictable. The
RAPS network is being
supplemented by air-
craft and balloons for
three-dimensional

62

studies, plus existing weather sta-
tions.

Complex. Each RAPS station is
highly complex, T. L. (Terry)
Loucks, vice president and general
manager of the Science Center, says,
Each is designed to automatically
monitor carbon monoxide, meth-
ane, total hydrocarbons, sulfur diox-
ide, total sulfur, nitrogen oxide, ni-
trogen dioxide, miscellaneous
oxides of nitrogen, and ozone. And
it’s all done with continuous-process
electronic sensors. In addition, me-
teorological instruments monitor
wind speed, wind direction, outside
temperature, delta temperature,
dew point, barometric pressure, so-
lar radiation, visibility, and turbu-
lence.

The instruments that monitor
these parameters are interfaced
through analog-to-digital converters
to a Digital Equipment Corp. PDP-

Inspection. Equipment in Regional Air Moni-
toring System is checked out. There are 25
stations scattered around St. Louis.

8/M minicomputer. A Pertec mag-
netic tape system stores the infor-
mation, which is also transmitted
approximately once a minute over
leased lines to the central station in
Creve Coeur, part of the St. Louis
metropolitan area.

The central station has a dual
processor to massage the incoming
data. A DEC PDP-11/05 and a PDP-
11/40 are used—the smaller 11/05
for foreground housekeeping and
telecommunications tasks and the
11/40 for data reduction. The out-
put of the system can be presented
on a high-speed Gould model 4800
electrostatic printer/plotter for hard
copy. Other peripherals, including
disk, tape, and cathode-ray tube,
also are included.

Among the most interesting parts
of the system are the pollution sen-
sors. Considerable work has gone
into developing instruments suitable
for unattended operation in indus-
trial applications with direct elec-
tronic output. But they hadn’t been
combined with sophisticated sensor
and data-handling
equipment. So Rock-
well had to develop
software and integrate
the instruments. Typi-
cal is the Beckman
model 6800 gas chro-
matograph, which
had been used to
monitor processes in
chemical plants. The
units are so new, in
fact, that Rockwell
has included daily
automatic recalibra-
tion to ensure validity
of data, a stipulation
that is high on the

EPA’s list of priorities because of
questions that have arisen concern-
ing past pollution studies.

Two units, both made by Monitor
Laboratories in San Diego, Calif.,
use chemiluminescence to detect
and measure ozone and various ox-
ides of nitrogen. Sulfur compounds
are measured at most stations with
model 2700 gaseous-sulfur analyz-
ers made by Tracor Inc. of Austin,
Texas, although some use total-sul-
fur analyzers made by Meloy Labs
of Springfield, Va. Both sulfur in-
struments use flame photometry.
These instruments use photomulti-
plier tubes, a major source of drift,
but the daily checks compensate.
Rockwell is seeking solid-state re-
placements for the tubes, but they
are not yet available.

The usual meteorological instru-
ments come from Meteorology Re-
search Inc., Altadena, Calif., and
the dew-point sensor is made by
EG&G Inc., Bedord, Mass. The solar-
radiation monitors are made by Ep-
pley Laboratory Inc., Newport, R.I.
Meteorological sensors are mounted
on 100-foot towers next to the self-
contained metal enclosures.

Aerosol threat. A major instru-
ment need is continuous monitoring
of particulates, says George Lauer,
Rockwell’s director of air-quality
research. Of special concern are
the tiny aerosols that are increas-
ingly being viewed as a threat to the
ozone layer that shields the earth
from excessive ultraviolet radiation.
Lauer says that particulates are now
checked with what is basically a fil-
ter and vacuum pump, with the fil-
ter weighted before and after expo-
sure. This approach is not amenable
to automated untended operation,
he says, but Rockwell is investi-
gating techniques.

“Sulfates are the big problem,”
says Lauer, and the group is now
checking out a novel acid-aerosol
evaluator. “There seems to be a
strong correlation between sulfates
and health problems, a subject of
concern because new automobile
catalytic converters may increase
sulfate production.”

Meanwhile, Rockwell, which
hopes that systems may also be pro-
cured for other cities, has also sup-
plied 23 fixed and five portable
monitoring stations around the

Electronics/December 26, 1974

country for the EPA’s $2.5 million
community-health air-monitoring
program (Champ), made studies of
aerosols for the EPA and California’s
Air Resources Board, and is in-
volved in other programs. It is also
one of six firms that has recently
qualified for a network of up to 50
monitoring stations for the Army’s
munitions plants, in what may be a
multimillion-dollar contract with
the Corps of Engineers. Others that

qualified for the project are General
Electric, Westinghouse, Xonics of
Van Nuys, Calif., Olson of Ana-
heim, Calif., and Radion of Austin,
Texas.

In Europe, meanwhile, the Com-
mon Market is studying a possible
linkup of air- and water-pollution
monitors in various nations. This
would include the Dutch system
[Electronics, June 5, 1972, p. 75] and
one proposed for Belgium. [ay

ment:

Our
new Model
251 Digital
Impedance Meter
provides the most accu-
rate measurements of in-
ductance (L), resistance
(R), capacitance (C), and
conductance (G) avail-
able in any instrument up
to five times the cost—
plus it’s fast and reliable.

Big, fat claims, right?
But consider this: Accu-
racy of 0.25% + 1 digit,

Automatic 0.257%
impedance

measure-_—__

sii Medan, Mey
ME

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measurement speeds of a
fraction of a second, high-
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solid-state construction
packed into a rugged 10-
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You might consider this.
Our reputation. We've
led the building of preci-
sion impedance measur-

ing instruments for labo-
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applications for 25 years.
Check us out, then call
or write for the com-
plete story. Ask about our
discrete IC testers, too.

Electro Scientific cae
Industries

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Drive

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Phone: (503) 646-4141

Circle 63 on reader service card

eialit

63

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If you’re designing a ROM-based
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The design and implementation of
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Application Notes

Economics of Microprogram-
mable Systems

Plan to use 0
Mfg Type

now use

the following ROM's: Name

My company's estimated number of product programs using ROM's

O Design of Microprogrammable 0 Design of a General Purpose

Systems Microcontroller In 1974
[] Debugging Microprogrammed Microprogramming Software

Systems Aids

My phone number

In 1975

I'd like a brief half-hour demonstration. Have a salesman contact me

In 1976:

Qty./¥r Title

Company

Address

| now use 0 Plan to use

Mfg Type

the following microprocessors: City

Qty./Yr
State

Zip

SCIENTIFIC MICRO SYSTEMS
520 Clyde Avenue, Mountain View, CA 94043
(415) 964-5700. TWX 910-739-6577.

E

64

Electronics/December 26, 1974
,

With inflation eating up a large part

of that gain, the outlook for sales

of electronic equipment is bleaker than
in recent years; Electronics’ survey
puts 1975 equipment market at

$19.25 billion, up from $17.5 billion

66 West Germany
68 United Kingdom
71 France

73 Italy

74 The Netherlands
75 Sweden

76. Spain

77 Belgium

78 Switzerland

79 Denmark

79 Norway

80 Finland

Electronics/December 26, 1974

Western Europe’s markets, beset by
economic woes, to rise only about 10%

C)There’s a good chance that 1975 will be a year many
people in the electronics business will want to forget.
Not since the end of World War 2 has Western Europe
run into so many economic troubles at one time: busi-
ness cycles headed downward in most countries, infla-
tion everywhere, oil and raw materials prices almost out
of sight.

What’s more, the effects are showing up in more
places than economists’ charts and the business pages of
newspapers. They are reflected by silent factories in the
countryside, long lines at unemployment offices, and
housewives turning their change purses inside out to
make ends meet at the end of the month.

Despite the dismal overall outlook, virtually no one
feels ready to predict for the electronics industry the
kind of plight that’s fallen on automakers and construc-
tion outfits. As they made their annual rounds through
12 countries this fall for the survey, Electronics’ report-
ers time and again had people tell them something like,
“we are cautious, but not pessimistic.”

This year’s reading has 1974 equipment markets for
the various categories (see the foldout chart at the end
of this report) at $17.5 billion. The 1975 forecast puts
total equipment markets at some $19.25 billion, a 10%
rise. But the only thing certain about the various mar-
kets is that price inflation will make any “gains” decep-
tively high. Throughout this report, incidentally, market
sizes—based on inputs obtained mostly in September
and October—are figured at factory sales prices for do-
mestic equipment and at landed cost for imports. Dollar

65

figures throughout were calculated for both 1974 and
1975 at the rates shown on the chart.

As usual, consumer electronics checks in at the top of
the list. But for the first time in a decade, it ranks last
among equipment markets when it comes to growth.
The survey figures a rise of 7% next year to $6.7 billion
from $6.3 billion this year. There’s no problem spot-
ting the hitch here. Sales of color-TV sets in the United
Kingdom plummeted this year, and few see much
chance for a recovery next year.

Since Britain is the No. 2 color-Tv market in Western
Europe, slow business there distorts the overall market
pattern. “I don’t see a bright outlook for 1975,” says Jan
F.G. Lamet, who heads the central planning depart-
ment for Western Europe’s largest electronics group,
Philips Gloeilampenfabrieken. Consumer electronics is
Philips’ strong point, and in late fall the company cut
working hours for 6,000 of its employees in Western Eu-
rope in a bid to keep inventories from rising too high.

There are no particular surprises further down the list
of equipment markets.
= Computers—at roughly $5.5 billion this year and a
projected $6 billion-plus next—are a close second to en-
tertainment electronics. As expected, the growth rate
here has slipped from the high teens of yesteryear; next
year is predicted to run 12% higher. Minicomputers are
another matter; they’re pegged to move up better than
35%.
= Despite lagging prospects for telecommunications-
equipment manufacturers in West Germany, Italy, and
a couple of smaller countries, there’s acceptable growth
in sight for other communications-equipment markets.
In all, they are forecast to move up from this year’s $3.1
billion to $3.5 billion.
= A drive to hold down the labor content in all sorts of
products will keep sales of process-control and automa-
tion equipment up during 1975. Industrial-equipment
markets seem set for an 11% rise to roughly $1.5 billion.
Instruments markets generally won’t do quite as well,
and some smaller producers may not make it through
the year.

For components makers, what a difference a year
makes. Most went into 1974 with bulging order back-
logs and delivery delays dangerously stretched out.
They'll go into 1975 with delivery times back to normal
and, in some cases, booking-to-billing ratios below one.
The marketing scenarios for the year ahead are gener-
ally being plotted as flat. Electronics survey projects a
barely perceptible rise to just under $5.5 billion next
year from $5.2 billion this year.

Semiconductor makers won’t outrun other compo-
nents suppliers this time around. The 1975 market for
discretes and ICs may slide up only to $1.35 billion from
the 1974 tally of $1.3 billion. There’ll be strong pressure
on prices until bookings start to pick up, particularly for
consumer-grade discretes, small-scale TTL packages,
and C-MOS. Most people in the industry say there will
not be a repeat of the debacle that developed the last
time the market went really sour. Robert Heikes, head
of Motorola’s semiconductor operations in Europe,
says, “I don’t think the industry is as dumb now as it
was in 1971.”

66

West Germany

Having the strongest and least inflation-ridden econ-
omy in Western Europe has not entirely protected West
Germany from the doldrums experienced elsewhere.
An iron-fisted policy of credit restrictions and cuts in
government spending have made for sluggish business
at home. Indeed, despite record exports the real overall
economic growth this year has been a piddling 1%.

Some seers figure that Chancellor Helmut Schmidt
will channel a little more government money into the
economy next year, and that way trigger a modest
rebound—perhaps enough to have the $400 billion
economy growing at something like 3% annually during
the second half. “It will still be a difficult year,” ad-
monishes Manfred Beinder, head of market research at
Standard Elektrik Lorenz AG, an ITT company.

Few would quarrel with Beinder’s assessment. Elec-
tronics, after querying dozens of firms throughout the
country, pegs the total of 1975 West German equip-
ment markets at $6.08 billion. That’s some 8% better—
nominally at least—than the estimated $5.61 billion in
the charts for this year. Since bloated prices account for
much of the apparent gain, the real growth looks like
something around 4% or 5%, far off the pace for a good
year.

Like almost everybody in the electronics-equipment
business, components suppliers will have to drown their
sorrows next year in beer rather than sparkling Rhine
wine. Electronics’ survey indicates an essentially flat
market for components: $1.94 billion this year, $1.96
billion next.

Semiconductor makers, this time around, are not
proving the rule. To be sure, there’ll be growth for
“new” products like MOS logic, optoelectronics, and pos-
sibly linears. But sales gains for these favored few will
barely offset the decline in discrete devices like small
signal transistors. “We are in a buyers market where
customers determine prices,” asserts Dirk G. Vogler,
manager of marketing administration at Texas Instru-
ments Devftschland GmbH.

For Vogler and his counterparts at the other major
semiconductor houses, accustomed as they are to spec-
tacular gains, it’s an unsettling state of affairs. But so
far, no one expects a repeat of the great semiconductor
debacle of 1970-1971. “We saw the slump coming as

GERMAN ELECTRONICS MARKETS FORECASTS
(IN MILLIONS OF DOLLARS)

Assembled equipment, total
Consumer products
Computers

Communications
Industrial electronics
Test and measuring
Medical electronics
Components

Exchange rate: $1 = 2.6 marks

Electronics/December 26, 1974

On line. Process-contro! computers, which run such industrial machinery as a six-stand tandem cold-rolling mill in Rasselstein, will continue
to sell well in West Germany, although competition from minicomputers will keep growth rate to 35%.

early as mid-1974 and prepared for it,” says Joachim
Prange, a market researcher at Siemens AG.

“This time,” says Fritz G. Héhne, manager for world-
wide semiconductor marketing at AEG-Telefunken, “We
saw a slump in demand simultaneously in the U.S. and
Europe, and we reacted swiftly to it.” Swift reaction has
come, too, from Texas Instruments and Philips Gloei-
lampenfabrieken, the leaders in European semicon-
ductor markets. Both have curtailed production.

Along with all this awareness, the West German
semiconductor makers have going for them a solid cus-
tomer—the country’s consumer-electronics industry. It
gobbles up some 60% of West German semiconductor
output.

Although shining examples of semiconductor sales
next year are few, bright items of new technology will
abound. There will be an 8-bit n-channel micro-
processor from Siemens, for example. AEG-Telefunken
will compete with an eight-bit p-channel device with
aluminum gates fabricated by ion-implantation—which
are compatible with microprocessors that will be put on
the market by sGs-Ates and General Instrument Eu-
rope, both headquartered in Italy. Intermetall and oth-
ers plan to make time with new MOS circuits for TV re-
mote controls and for timepieces.

For set makers, the game changes

German set makers have found an unexpectedly
good color-TV market this year. Most of them entered
1974 fairly sure that the two-year buying spree touched
off by the Munich Olympic Games would wind down.
But they misjudged the country’s passion for soccer and
its adoration of the national team. Largely because of

Electronics/December 26, 1974

the four-week-long World Soccer Championships held
throughout Germany this summer—and won by the
West Germans—color-Tv-receiver sales have soared. At
mid-year, in fact, some companies were reporting sales
gains of 50% over the comparable 1973 period. That
was enough to lift the market to roughly 2 million color
sets—a record, of course. For the first time, points out
Johanna von Ronai-Horvath, head of market research
for the ITT entertainment-electronics companies
Schaub-Lorenz GmbH and Graetz GmbH, color sets
outsold monochromes. Reckoning in money rather than
units, Saba-Werke’s market research chief Wieland A.
Liebler figures the 1974 gain for color-TV sets at 25%.

There’s nothing like that in sight for 1975, marketing
people at ITT, Grundig, Saba, and Philips Germany all
agree. Consumers will waltz off with some $1.18 billion
worth of color sets, 11% more than they did this year,
according to Electronics’ survey. Add radios, hi-fi gear,
tape recorders, and monochrome TV receivers to the
mainstay, color receivers, and the prospects for enter-
tainment electronics in 1975 wind up as a dull show—a
modest rise of 6% to $2.28 billion.

The survey, however, doesn’t show everything. Con-
sumer-electronics business will be lifted a little by sales
of the ubiquitous pocket calculator, which is now meta-
morphosing from a semiprofessional product into a full-
fledged consumer item. Reliable figures are still hard to
come by, but it’s a fairly safe bet that at least 1.3 million
calculators were sold in West Germany this year. That’s
as many as had been sold in all the years before 1974.

There could be some brand new business in enter-
tainment electronics, too, since AEG-Telefunken says it
will finally get its Teldec video-disk system, dubbed

67

TED, onto the market. A redesign forced the company to
boost the list price for a TED player by 25% to about
$580. All the same, Telefunken believes it can sell be-
tween 25,000 and 30,000 units next year.

Computers slow their pace a little

Computer makers know their market will be up next
year but not as much as this year. “No longer do cus-
tomers look on computers as prestige objects,” says Eck-
hard Reimann, manager for market planning at Sperry
Rand’s Univac division in Germany. “Instead they are
scrutinizing systems carefully these days before chang-
ing over to computer operations or upgrading models.”

With the market edging toward caution, forecasters
see some tapering-off next year in growth of general-
purpose computer systems. Their sales moved up a
strong 12% in 1974; next year the figure will be closer to
10%. Electronics’ survey puts the market at just under
$2 billion in 1974 and forecasts a rise to just under $2.2
billion in 1975.

For the traditional sectors of the computer business,
minicomputers and small systems (with monthly rents
up to $3,000) appear set to lead the rise. But “contrary
to earlier predictions, large systems will enjoy contin-
uing growth, too,” asserts Jochen Réssner, a Univac
marketing specialist. By “large” Réssner means systems
renting for $60,000 a month and up.

Process-control computers will do much better than
general-purpose business/administration machines. For
1975, the Cologne computer firm Dietz Elektronik pegs
the growth at 45% in number of installations. But Dietz
points out that heavy price competition by the mini-
makers will cut the gain in revenues to more like 35%,

Meanwhile, some new data-processing markets are
taking shape. One of the most promising seems to be
point-of-sale systems, still a small market but growing
fast. Sales next year will double or triple to about $10
million. What’s still lacking, laments Univac’s Reimann,
is a uniform coding scheme for price tags. But that may
not be too far off. Already several chain stores have
large-scale POS test programs under way.

Communications cut back

The talk by telecommunications-equipment makers is
nearly all bad; “The worst in recent times,” is the way
one company executive describes the slump.

For starters, the post office—their major customer—
slashed its spending for telecommunications this year
by more than 12%. Instead of the $2.54 billion ear-
marked originally, the outlay was cut to $2.23 billion.
Since further cuts look likely, 1975 probably will turn
out no better. “Kurzarbeit”—shorter working hours—
and even layoffs are the word at most of the country’s
two dozen-odd communications houses. Siemens AG,
the largest, is paring its manpower in telephone-switch-
ing plants from 22,000 to 16,000.

The purely electronics side of the communications
business isn’t flourishing either. Electronics’ consensus
forecast points to a relatively flat market: $613 million
this year and $637 million next. About the only consola-
tion is that it apparently can’t go on forever. The post
office is readying for a large-scale introduction of its

68

Fast access. Terminals are popping up all over West Germany, as
for example at the Frankfurt airport's new passenger building.

EWS electronic switching system starting in 1977. The
first two systems were cut over for regular service late
this year. Siemens spearheaded the EWS development,
laying out nearly $400 million of its own money for the
project.

Then there’s the electronic data-switching system, the
EDS; three more are expected to go into operation next
year. The EDS uses multiplex techniques and can handle
up to 28,000 data channels depending on transmission
speeds. The post office isn’t stinting on pulse-code-mod-
ulation systems for short-haul telephone trunks either.
By the end of the year, there will be about 150 systems
in operation.

Likewise, there’s no letup in the market for modems.
As for post office versions, the number jumped from
6,000 last year to 8,000 this year and is expected to go to
10,500 in 1975. On top of that come “private” modems
with a rate of installation that should be just as high.
Their number is difficult to pin down but it is estimated
to be twice that of the post office models.

‘United Kingdom”

The United Kingdom, having already shed its imperial
trappings, seems headed for a time when it will don
shabby garments. Indeed, no less a government official
than foreign secretary James Callaghan publicly warns
that the country is “sliding downhill” toward one of the
lowest standards of living in Europe. By Britain’s own
reckoning, 1980 will see its economy half that of West
Germany or France and equal to Italy’s, measured in
terms of average gross national product per capita.

Among its current ills are an inflation rate that may
top 20% before it starts to subside, labor costs shooting
up nearly 25%, a horrendous payments deficit, and a
sagging growth rate for the gross national product. The
overall output of goods and services seems headed
toward zero growth from this year’s 3%. To make it
worse, some economists now think the country has al-
ready borrowed more than it can ever recoup from its
North Sea oil fields.

It’s not surprising, then, that many a marketing man-
ager shudders when asked to put down numbers for
1975. For those who supplied inputs to Electronics’ an-

Electronics/December 26, 1974

nual survey, it was mostly a question of bad or worse. In
the electronic-equipment sector, total projections for
1975 add up to $3.47 billion. That’s 8.4% above the $3.2
billion estimated for 1974, and that figure does not take
inflation into account. Traditionally strong British prod-
uct areas—such as computers, radar, navigational aids,
and communications equipment—look as though they
generally can hold their own.

Color-TV, the bright star of the electronics industries
for 1973, burned far less brightly in Britain this year,
and 1975 won’t bring it any new luster, Consumer con-
sumption, from both retailers and the rental companies
that dominate the market, shot up to 2.7 million sets last
year. This year it tumbled to less than 2 million sets,
and that’s where it appears likely to stay. The forecast is
for a flat market at $815 million.

In its latest budget, the third this year, Prime Minister
Harold Wilson’s Labor government kept the reins on
consumer credit. Therefore, set makers may have to
wait until 1977, when a replacement market should
emerge, for an upturn. Meanwhile, with color-TV sales
flat, the entertainment-electronics market has little else
going for it. Next year’s outlook is for a piddling rise of
3.5% to $1.45 billion.

What’s bad for British consumer electronics produc-
ers has to be bad—or worse—for the country’s compo-
nents suppliers. Rental companies and radio-Tv dealers
have built up whopping inventories of color sets. The
actual number is controversial, but it’s in the hundreds
of thousands. With an inventory like that, and dull con-
sumer demand, set production can’t expand much, if at
all. And there goes the components makers’ chance for
much growth. Electronics’ survey forecasts an overall
components market next year of $1.02 billion, up only
5.1% over this year’s estimated $970 million.

Semiconductor makers, for once, won’t fare much
better than producers of passive devices, even though
semiconductor content is on the rise in most equipment.
Sales of discrete components next year will barely top
this year’s $125 million. As for ICs, they'll climb only 6%
to $105 million. Chalk that up to heavy pressure on
prices.

Systems are “‘go”’ at the BPO

While the Tv-set makers fret over their stagnant
home market, communications-hardware producers can
count on being aided by a big-spending customer at

BRITISH ELECTRONICS MARKETS FORECASTS
(IN MILLIONS OF DOLLARS)

1974

3,203.7
1,404.1
673.8
665.6
266.1
90.1
104.0
970.3

Assembled equipment, total
Consumer products

Computers
Communications
Industrial electronics
Test and measuring
Medical electronics
Components

Exchange rate: $1 = 43 pence (£1 = $2.33)

Electronics/December 26, 1974

Testing. With such new items as a Sinclair multimeter, Britain's
equipment markets will grow—but inflation may erase gains.

home and a satisfying list of buyers abroad. At home,
the British Post Office plans to spend some $200 million
next year on electronic gear for the country’s tele-
communications networks, which it owns and manages.
However, BPO, a public corporation, took a net 13% cut-
back in 1974 funding, and further restrictions might be
on the way. But suppliers think that, whatever happens,
it will mean stretching out programs, not curtailing
them. For one thing, the BPO has committed itself to a
complete overhaul of its over-age telephone switching
exchanges. So the hardware market should be long and
lucrative for BPO’s traditional suppliers—General Elec-
tric Co. Ltd., Plessey Ltd., and Standard Telephone &
Cables Ltd., an ITT company.

Of the $200 million, about $160 million is targeted
for trunk-exchange hardware, split $92.5 million for
switching and $67.5 million for transmission. The tele-
typewriter network gets about $28 million—$16 million
for machines, $7 million for switching, and about $2
million for multichannel voice-frequency gear. Another
$8 million is budgeted for data-transmission trials, and
there’s some $2.3 million to improve telegraph services.

All this adds up to some whopping orders to keep
telecommunications makers busy. STC has the initial
contract for about 20 semi-electronic TXE-4 large ex-
changes. The first will be installed in 1975. Late next
year, the experimental public packet-switched digital
network, which is based on Ferranti Ltd. computerized
switches, should go into operation. The hardware here
cost about $2.3 million, and another $4.6 million outlay
is planned to upgrade the network from experimental to
trial status in 1976 or 1977.

Until the Wilson government thrashes out what to do
about Britain’s defense programs, radar and avionics
makers can’t pin down what their business next year

69

J

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sist

aloioilolatel

see
iki bikie
MES

Pai A AE AE ah
iiotepe be beb bi baie be sede

Bleak picture. Despite a rise in the semiconductor content of made-in-Britain electronic gear, the value of the descrete-device market should
stay nearly even with this year's output. With heavy pressure on prices, IC sales will climb only about 6%.

will be. Nonetheless, the Electronics’ consensus forecast
points to strong markets for navigation aids, radar, and
radio-communications equipment. They, along with
BPO outlays for electronic switching gear and data trans-
mission are mainly what’s behind the predicted jump of
some $100 million for communications equipment, a
jump that will carry the total market to roughly $770
million.

Even if the home market doesn’t do all that well, ra-
dar makers like Raytheon-owned Cossor Electronics
Ltd., Decca Ltd., EMI, Marconi Ltd., and Plessey should
fare nicely in 1975. All have strong possibilities in mili-
tary markets abroad—even though there’s an “over-
supply of suppliers,” as one avionics-company manager

ut it.

Plessey, for example, has prospects for its new AR-3D
single-antenna three-dimensional ground radar at de-
fense establishments around the world. Marconi has the
same hopes for its airborne radars. In avionics, Mar-
coni-Elliott will start working on its third thousand of
head-up displays for export; more than 1,000 of the
company’s displays have gone into the U.S. A-7 fighter
program. Not content with that success, Marconi-Elliott
has readied an extended version of its head-up hard-
ware that incorporates a computerized weapons-aiming
system.

Steel reinforces computer makers

Computer people in the UK won’t have to worry
about the wherewithal for their pints of bitter next year.
The data-processing market looks set for a respectable

70

rise from this year’s estimated $674 million in sales to
nearly 769 million next. All sizes of computers will par-
ticipate in the upward push as local governments, in-
dustry, and the armed forces rush to beat down rising
manpower costs. As in most West European countries,
minicomputers and data terminals will move out faster
than other equipment.

Watch for brisk action in big machines—systems val-
ued at $1.68 million and up. International Computers
Ltd., the native computer company, put a new range of
big machines—the 2900 series—on the market this fall
and expects big things from them. Already, ICL has
logged nearly $50 million in orders for 2900 machines.
Most of the business has come from the government,
which picked up the tab for about a quarter of the $460
million or so it cost ICL to get its new series on the mar-
ket. But ICL will joust with IBM for big-machine busi-
ness, both in Britain and in selected international mar-
kets.

One big chunk of business is the $135-million packet-
switched computer network that British Steel Corp.
plans to start putting together next year. In a system
similar to the Defense Department’s Arpanet in the
U.S., the nationalized steel company wants to inter-
connect four administrative centers, a program-devel-
opment center, a research bureau, and 10 production-
planning and control centers over the next seven years.
IBM and ICL will split the business for the administrative
and program-development centers, while the processor
equipment for the research bureau presumably will be
ordered next year after competitive bidding.

Electronics/December 26, 1974

France

Ever since Charlemagne started them going to school,
the French have shown a penchant for doing things dif-
ferently. Valéry Giscard d’Estaing and his countrymen
really meant it, until the beginning of 1974, when they
cried “vive la différence.” Their economy was growing
so fast and so soundly that some pundits figured France
would rank third behind the United States and the So-
viet Union among the world’s economies by the end of
the century.

No way, now. France’s surge has been checked by the
woes that beset most West European economies—oil
priced out of sight, whopping payments deficits, and
harrowing inflation. To be sure, Giscard and his men
have moved to brake inflation, mainly through a credit
squeeze. But that’s brought business to a crawl and sent
unemployment winging upward. To make matters
worse, a prolonged postal workers’ strike has accen-
tuated the slowdown. Things may get better from next
summer on, but now it looks as if the real growth of the
economy will run only slightly above 4% next year,
down from nearly 5% this year.

Little wonder that electronics industries executives
are shifting from champagne to vin ordinaire. They can’t
count on any substantial new business, apart from ex-
ports, to offset the general slowdown. The suggestion
that an infusion of high technology is one answer to
high-priced energy has gone out to the nation’s indus-
trialists, but for the most part they are too short on in-
vestment capital to act on it. Traditional markets, ex-
cept for computers and communications, will be
lackluster, so 1975 will probably shape up as merely
passable. French equipment markets should bring total
sales of just over $3.5 billion. That works out to an 11%
gain over this year’s estimated $3.16 billion.

As usual, the sensitive components business picked
up the first sniff of trouble. Even a year ago, in the
midst of a boom, components people were worried
about late 1974. Their worries were well-founded. After
roaring through most of the first half, business pulled
up short in September. Squeezed by high-cost energy
and falling demand, component buyers began cutting
back or canceling orders and started working off inven-
tories.

French components producers are also keeping a ner-

- FRENCH ELECTRONICS MARKETS FORECASTS
(IN MILLIONS OF DOLLARS)

1974

3,158.8
801.0
1,129.6
794.7
182.6
126.6
124.3
961.0

1975

3,504.9
851.4
1,265.3
921.0
187.3
136.8
143.1
1,018.4

Assembled equipment, total
Consumer products
Computers

Communications
Industrial electronics
Test and measuring
Medical electronics
Components

Exchange rate: $1 = 4.8 francs

Electronics/ December 26, 1974

vous watch on the U.S. market. They’re anxious over
the chance that the big U.S. suppliers will try to channel
excess products to Europe to alleviate their own market
slump. “We are seeing some signs now of the beginning
of a price war,” warns a senior government official who
keeps tabs on the components business. “U.S. com-
panies are starting to cut prices, and they need only a
tiny profit margin to stay alive.”

Managers at U.S. companies might dispute this, but
there’s no quarrel over softening prices. At Texas In-
struments, second only to Philips in European semicon-
ductor markets, European marketing manager Francois
Dufaux predicts price reductions on sophisticated prod-
ucts. But he adds that TI has been expecting a market
slowdown at this time for a couple of years. “It’s not
taken us by surprise,” he claims.

Few, in fact, were taken in by the first-half boom.
And so there’s little that’s surprising in the Electronics
consensus forecasts for 1975 components markets in
France. They should edge up about 6% to about $1.02
billion, and that’s mostly because of price rises for pas-
sive components. For the first time in years, semicon-
ductors will not pace the market. Discrete devices will
hover a little below this year’s estimated $117 million
while ICs will gain very little—perhaps going to $97 mil-
lion next year from $94 million this year.

Hard times at home for equipment makers

Components makers have company. “It’s going to be
no worse for them than for us,” says Louis Le Saget,
executive vice-president of CIT-Alcatel, a communi-
cations-making subsidiary of the Compagnie Générale
d’Electricité (CGE), the largest electrical-electronics
group in France.

The country’s Tv-set makers share that sentiment.
Like others on the Continent, they had crowds of soccer
fans turning up in their retailers’ shops during the first
half of 1974 to buy color sets. But the spurt subsided in
the fall, and the year’s sales probably will end up at
roughly $330 million. To be sure, that’s a solid 28% rise
over last year’s mark. But the country’s setmakers, with
a market far from saturation, had counted on doing
much better.

For 1975, the outlook is for a very modest rise to $365
million. And with color-Tv sales sluggish, not much can
happen in the total entertainment-electronics market.
It’s pegged to expand 6% from $800 million this year to
$850 million next year.

For the lackluster color-TV sales in sight, set makers
have to take part of the blame as well as the conse-
quences. They switched massively to wide-angle picture
tubes last year, a move one government industry-
watcher now questions. ‘““They were mad to bring in the
110° tube,” he charges. “It added another $200 to the
price so people have to wait longer to buy. Still, the in-
dustry is preparing to launch another improved tube
[precision-in-line type] at the end of next year.” The up-
shot, he feels, may be a new interest in monochrome
sets and hi-fi systems as consumers shy away from
$1,000 color-TV sets.

Industrial equipment makers find themselves in
much the same fix. Their customers, even though big in-

(Al.

In the air. With up to $4.5 million in electronics gear per plane, the
Mirage F-1 will keep France’s avionics and radar builders happy.

dustrial outfits, are strapped for investment money.
Thus, the big business that market planners see for au-
tomation electronics won’t come next year. Electronics’
consensus forecast points to an essentially flat market
next year at $187 million. ciT-Alcatel’s Le Saget is even
more pessimistic. He predicts a drop in sales for nu-
merical controls and process automation systems.

As for instruments makers, the large ones anyway,
they are bravely predicting some growth for 1975. The
survey indicates a small rise, from $127 to $137 million.
But business probably won’t be buoyant enough to keep
some of the smaller instrument makers afloat. At year-
end, several faced serious financial troubles.

Communications-equipment makers, by contrast, will
be well ballasted by heavy workloads. Still holding to its

iit

In

Peas a" wom eaten
Check out. Still ringing up sales in France are point-of-sale termi-

nals, such as the 75 machines at Europe's biggest hypermarket.

72

vow to get the country’s telephone system on a par with
neighboring Northern European countries by 1978, the
government has budgeted close to $3 billion for tele-
communications next year. That’s a hefty 35% rise over
this year’s allotment. But in actual equipment pur-
chases, the rise won’t be nearly as impressive; inflation
will slim it down.

What’s more, there will be a significant shift in equip-
ment policy by the government’s ministry for tele-
communications next year, a shift that will hurt elec-
tronics. Originally, the agency planned to spend up to
10% of its outlay for new switching equipment on elec-
tronic systems, particularly CIT-Alcatel’s E-10 time-divi-
sion Platon system. But it has turned out costlier than
first thought, and the agency is under pressure to get as
many new lines in service as it can for its money. So the
share for electronic switching will run only between 4%
and 6%. Companies with strong positions in the micro-
wave business, however, see a lot of appeal in the min-
istry’s plans to step up spending on interurban micro-
wave links and coaxial-cable trunk lines.

The most favored lot of French electronics companies
over the next year will fall to high-technology com-
panies like Thomson-CsF, avionics producer Electron-
ique Marcel Dassault, missile maker Engins Matra, and
Le Matériel Téléphonique (LMT), an ITT company that
makes a wide range of navigational aids and radio gear
in addition to what its name indicates. These manufac-
turers will thrive on military-equipment orders, but they
generally don’t like to talk about it. “The military busi-
ness is static in France,” blandly asserts Edouard Guig-
onis, the commercial director for Thomson-CsF. “In real
terms, it may even show a decline next year.”

That may be true for deliveries to the French army,
navy, and air force. But there’s no doubt that overseas
arms sales by the French are flourishing and may con-
tinue to do so for several years to come. With little offi-
cial information to go on, the guessing is that plane-
maker Marcel Dassault, Thomson-CsF, Engins Matra,
and the country’s other weapons makers have piled up
some $2.5 billion in new orders this year. LMT reports
brisk export business for its navaids, for example. At
ciT-Alcatel, orders for underseas-warfare systems are
up 30% this year over last year’s $42 million. But per-
haps the surest sign that France’s military-hardware
makers are going full tilt comes from the quasi-official
economic forecasting agency BIPE—for Bureau
d’Information et de Prévisions Economiques. The weap-
ons business, confirms the agency’s top electronics fore-
caster, Jean-Philippe Dauvin, will play a large role in
keeping the high-technology companies busy next year.
As a result, he feels, there is now little chance of a crisis
for components producers.

The computer makers, obviously, don’t face a crisis,
either. But they can’t expect to match this year’s growth
of nearly 15% overall. Electronics’ forecast puts the mar-
ket at $1.27 billion, up 11% over the 1974 figure of $1.13
billion. It’s the medium and large systems that look the
most vulnerable to the squeeze on investment capital,
according to BIPE’s Dauvin. Minicomputers should
spurt better than 30%, and point-of-sale equipment
should be a high-flyer.

Electronics/December 26, 1974

Italy

La Dolce Vita has run its course as a life style in Italy
and now Italians are getting a strong taste of “Bitter
Rice.” The day’s news is a routine recital of woe—both
political and economic. Reports of bombings, political
scandals, and threatened coups d’état fill columns.
Alongside are run grim stories about the Italian econ-
omy—inflation at 25% annually and accelerating, unem-
ployment rising past the million mark, an incredibly
bad cash-flow situation, and a foreign-trade payments
deficit pushing past $10 billion. Recession—if not
chaos—seems inevitable, and some economists now
think the country’s real output of goods and services
will shrink about 12% in 1975.

Electronics’ consensus forecast, based on inputs sup-
plied this fall by most of the major Italian electronics
firms, has all electronic equipment sales rising to $1.45
billion next year from the $1.26 billion logged in 1974.
On the face of it, that’s a 15% rise, but it works out to
practically no real growth because of inflated prices. But
there are a couple of major exceptions. Automation-
hardware sales will go up, mainly because machines
don’t clamor for pay rises as workers do. And there’ll be
reasonable growth for sales of color-TV sets.

Pirate transmitters help set makers

For a long time now, Italian Ty-set makers have
known what they needed to tonic their sales: color
transmissions by the official broadcast agency, RAI-TV.
But there’s so little chance of that happening soon that
they’ve even given up lamenting about it. All the same,
the set makers are not without consolation. For some
time now, so-called “pirate” transmitters have been re-
laying colorcasts from France, Switzerland, and Yugo-
slavia. The programs now reach well into northern
Italy, and are expected soon to reach as far south as
Rome.

While lacking legitimacy, these colorcasters appar-
ently provide as much market stimulation as the Italian
set makers need at present. This year’s sales ran some
$24 million, according to Electronics’ survey, and next
year’s should run $34 million. Not overwhelming, but,
as a beginning, not bad.

But, for the mainstay, black-and-white TV, Electronics
forecasts an essentially flat market at just under $150

ITALIAN ELECTRONICS MARKETS FORECASTS
(IN MILLIONS OF DOLLARS)

1974

1,257.8
281.3
471.5
290.9
143.8

36.8
33.5
336.7

1975

1,451.0
306.6
525.9
367.0
172.1

42.4
37.0
357.9

Assembled equipment, total
Consumer products
Computers

Communications
Industrial electronics
Test and measuring
Medical electronics
Components

Exchange rate: $1 = 675 lire

Electronics/December 26, 1974

million for 1975. Mainly because of color-TV sales, total
consumer electronics will move up to $307 million next
year from this year’s $281 million, according to the
charts.

Telecommunications a disappointment

Until this year, Italian telecommunications-equip-
ment makers considered growing markets as one of the
certainties of life, but the economic tailspin has changed
all that. “We face some very tough months ahead,” wor-
ries Aldo Calderelli, who is vice president for Europe at
General Telephone & Electronics in Milan.

Calderelli and his counterparts at other suppliers of
telecommunications to the state-owned telephone com-
pany SIP indeed have their problems. sip has been work-
ing on what was once an ambitious expansion plan—to
add nearly 5 million new subscribers to its network be-
tween 1974 and 1978. But inflation has undermined the
program.

The solution, says sIP, is higher phone rates, but so
far the government has balked at that. However, the
government may yet come through with a new five-year
plan for improving the telecommunications network. It
would allocate $1.7 billion for the years 1974 through
1978. This plan was proposed by the post and tele-
communications ministry and is now before a high-level
economic planning committee. It would supplant an
existing five-year plan involving $864 million.

Meanwhile, the waiting list for phones mounts at a
time when sIP has been forced to cut back its equipment
buys. Some companies report their orders from SIP have
been slashed by as much as 30% in recent months. And
they look for similar setbacks in 1975.

For the electronics industries, the only consolation to
count on here is that SIP’s heavy cuts mostly affect elec-
tromechanical switching. But there’ll be setbacks for
electronic-hardware programs too. ASST, the state
agency that handles the country’s trunk lines—just as SIP
runs the local networks—wants to upgrade its micro-
wave network, but probably won’t get the necessary
government approval. RAI-TV ordinarily would be in the
market for broadcast equipment next year—it’s working
mostly with over-age transmitters and repeaters—but
the government keeps the broadcast agency on a hand-
to-mouth, year-to-year basis that effectively rules out
investments.

One program that could fare better than most is im-
provement of the nation’s airports. Some $110 million
was earmarked by the parliament this summer for “‘in-
dispensable” improvements on runways and buildings,
plus another $55 million for navigation aids. It’s mainly
because of expected sharp rises in radio communi-
cations gear and radar that Electronics’ survey points to
a spurt in communications-equipment markets, from
$290 million this year to $367 million next.

Manpower costs a motive for minis

There’s a spurt in sight, too, for industrial-automation
equipment. Giovanni Mantovani, marketing director
for Nuove Pignone, figures the market as a whole will
rise at least 20% next year. Mantovani’s company, part
of the state-owned oil group ENI, saw its own orders

73

jump 40% this year and expects to do even better next.
But Mantovani stresses that the gains stem from such
new developments as pollution control and hospital au-
tomation. Equipment sales to traditional customers like
petrochemicals makers are fairly sluggish in Italy, al-
though Nuove Pignone has a solid backlog from East
European countries.

Amidst the general gloom, the computer market con-
tinues to glow, although not nearly as brightly as before.
Electronics’ survey shows an 11% climb to $526 million
next year. The 1974 gain was a shining 18%.

Not unexpectedly, the minicomputers are selling
faster than their bigger brothers. Many, though, serve as
little more than billing machines for small businesses.
It’s mainly a matter of saving labor costs. Indeed, the
urge to keep labor costs in line is bolstering the market
to such an extent that next year’s growth may be as
much as 50%. Olivetti, which obviously knows a good

thd = | se |
Adds up. The Italian market for business accounting systems—from
hand-held calculators to big computers—keeps on growing.

thing when it sees one, has entered the market with new
modular accounting systems—the Audit 5 and the Audit
7, plus a computer terminal, the TC 800.

While small businesses turn to minis, more mature
data-processing users are shifting upward from minis to
small machines, notes Renato Levrero, a market re-
searcher at Honeywell Information Systems Italia. And
there’s still big-system business going on with the gov-
ernment.

Electronics’ survey pegs next year’s components mar-
kets in Italy at just under $360 million. That would be
6% up on the 1974 figure and not terribly exciting when
inflation is running at 25%. As a result, Italian compo-
nents producers are turning heavily to the export mar-
kets. Sergio Minoretti, General Instrument Europe’s
vice president for marketing, reports his company now
ships 70% of its output to export markets. “The down-
turn is less pronounced there,” he maintains.

74

The Netherlands

There’s downbeat news coming out of Eindhoven, in
the Netherlands, headquarters for Philips Gloeilam-
penfabrieken, far and away the largest electronics com-
pany in Western Europe. Philips at year’s end figured
its sales worldwide for 1974 would add up to just under
$9.5 billion. That’s a gain of 11% over the 1973 figure,
but it hasn’t boosted profits. Steep rises in labor and
materials costs have cut so deeply that company offi-
cials say they’re “hoping”—but not sure—that they will
wind up the year with the same $340 million net profit
they managed in 1973.

Conservative when it comes to pulling back the cur-
tains on the outlook for the year ahead, Philips execu-
tives now say so many hitches are possible in business
worldwide that they are not going on record yet with es-
timates for their 1975 sales. Holland, however, amounts
to just another small market for Philips. And Electron-
ics’ survey did turn up a few hardy souls with ideas on
how the country’s electronics markets might perform
next year. The consensus forecast is for a climb from
$844 million for electronic equipment this year to some
$950 million next.

That works out to an apparently good-looking 12%,
but a thick layer of inflation masks little real growth.
Communications and computers look like the strongest
equipment performers next year. Nothing special seems
in sight for the entertainment-electronics sector. It’s pre-
dicted to go beyond $350 million—up from the $322
million this year. As for components suppliers, their
markets are forecast as essentially flat; $172 million this
year, $176 million next.

Sales figures for communications equipment will
spurt next year. Electronics’ forecast puts 1975 markets
at roughly $107 million, up a solid 25% over the $86
million racked up this year. Much of the credit goes to
electronic switching. The Dutch postal and tele-
communications authority, the PTT, last year made it
known it would switch to stored-program-control
switching as much as possible. And the PTT has backed
up its intentions with some 30,000 lines worth of Philips
PRX exchanges this year. Leo Marijnen, managing di-
rector of Philips Telecommunicatie Nederland, expects
the total will run to 100,000 lines in 1975. At $200 or so
a line, the PRX business is a big plus for Philips. L M

DUTCH ELECTRONICS MARKETS FORECASTS
(IN MILLIONS OF DOLLARS) °

Assembled equipment, total
Consumer products
Computers
Communications
Industrial electronics

Test and measuring
Medical electronics
Components

Exchange rate: $1 = 2.65 guilders

Electronics/December 26, 1974

Ericsson, too, could come in for some semi-electronics
switching business; it’s in line for a trunk switching ex-
change at Dordrecht.

The PTT still has its video-telephone trials running.
Although there are no formal results yet, some potential
users have let on already that they wouldn’t want the
service if they had to pay for it. “We ran the experiment
as much for ergonomics, to see how people would react
to them, as anything else,” says Hendrik Wijers, a tele-
communications official at PTT. The same consideration
lies behind the nine-man conference-television studios
at Amsterdam and the Hague that the PTT plans to
open late this year. They'll be linked to studios in Lon-
don and Stockholm.

Radar will be a propellant for the communications
sector next year. Philips has orders totalling $7 million—
some $2.2 million of that for electronic gear—to build
the first phase of a radar chain for the Scheldt River es-
tuary, the channel that leads from the North Sea to the
port of Antwerp. The first phase, which should be in op-
eration at the end of 1975, includes a couple of un-
manned stations on towers—one of them on an artificial
island that Philips will build in the estuary.

The Dutch police, too, will do their part. They’ve
taken delivery this year on a $3 million system that
routes teletypewriter messages automatically to police
stations throughout the country. Some 200 terminals are
linked to a central station, based on a Philips DS-714
message switcher. Next year, a computer for car-registry
retrieval will be added and’ by 1976—maybe earlier—the
number of terminals will be up to 500. Arnold Janssen,
the project engineer, thinks this is the first such nation-
wide system in Western Europe.

After communications come computers on the list of
fastest-growing markets. The consensus figure is a 1975
market of $308 million for data-processing and related
gear, a jump of nearly 14%. Unfortunately for makers of
traditional EDP hardware, most of the bulge is coming
from things like electronic calculators, point-of-sale
equipment, and minicomputers. New EDP systems will
show a rise of about 8% to $142 million, compared with
a gain of some 10% this year. As Jan Schapers, com-
puter systems manager in Holland for Hewlett-Packard
puts it, “We are probably heading for a difficult time,
but a lot of people are exaggerating the difficulties.”

On trial. The Dutch telecommunications office is still running tests of
commercial video-telephone service, which started early in 1974.

Electronics/December 26, 1974

Sweden

Like guests who arrive late at the annual village smor-
gasbord, the Swedes find themselves out of phase with
their neighbors. The country’s industrial plants are run-
ning at full capacity, manufacturers’ order books are
plump with backlogs, and companies are earning record
profits. Foreign trade has figured heavily in all this, but
domestic consumption has held up, too. And although
Swedes worry about it like everyone else, inflation so far
has not advanced to the dangerous double-digit stage
on Sweden. Unless the other European economies turn
unusually sour next year, the Swedes expect they can
push up their real output of goods and services between
4% and 5%, the same kind of growth they logged this
year for their gross national product.

That prospect explains the confidence that reigns in
the industrial-electronics sector. The consumer-electron-
ics people, by contrast, won’t have it so good. Largely
because color-TV sales have peaked, the total figures for
Swedish electronic-equipment markets don’t show
much glow. Electronics’ survey turned up a consensus
forecast of $876 million for 1975, up less than 5% over
this year’s $839 million. Components makers can count
on doing a little better. The forecasts for their markets
add up to $217 million, a rise of 7%.

Computer field looks good

The drabness falls away, though, when you get to
computers and industrial equipment. They stand to
chalk up double-digit advances next year. Suppliers of
computer and related equipment should see their mar-
kets rise to $208 million from the 1974 figure of $185
million. That’s a 12% spurt. The same sort of thing can
be expected in the industrial-electronics markets. They
are forecast to go to $63 million from this year’s $56
million.

For both sectors, in fact, the long-term outlook is
solid. A royal investigating commission this spring took
a long look into the country’s data-processing needs and
the ways and means to develop a sane Swedish com-
puter industry. Its conclusion: the government alone
would need something like $25 million worth of new
EDP systems every year from now until 1980 plus an-
other $65 million annually for replacement systems.
The report recommends that Sweden move toward
data-communications-oriented networks tied to big
computers.

All this is good news for the major terminal makers,
like Svenska Philips AB, SAAB-Scania AB, and Nixdorf:
Computer. It also points to a change in the market for
the mainframe makers, thinks Stig Walstam, marketing
director for Sperry Rand’s Univac division in Sweden.
Extensive systems with real-time responsibilities, like
the system that the Swedish police are getting, mean
computer makers will more and often be supplying
turnkey data-processing installations rather than merely
hardware and software.

As for industrial-equipment makers, they may be
heading to a best-of-both-worlds situation. With plants
running at full blast, industrialists figure to spend heav-

75

SWEDISH ELECTRONICS MARKETS FORECASTS
(IN MILLIONS OF DOLLARS)

Assembled equipment, total
Consumer products

Computers
Communications
Industrial electronics
Test and measuring
Medical electronics
Components

Exchange rate: $1 = 4.35 krona

ily for automation equipment. And the government has
a couple of more inducements in mind.

Last month, the government sent a bill up to parlia-
ment that would require companies to deposit 15% of
their pretax profits into special funds. The money would
be earmarked for industrial and other investments dur-
ing the next five years. This bill follows a similar one,
already approved by parliament, that puts a 20% levy
on pretax profits to set up funds destined to improve the
working environment. Finance minister Gunnar
Straeng estimates that companies will put about
$500,000 into the funds. Part will go for monitoring de-
vices and control equipment to improve the environ-
ment in plants. Musing on that, Harry Nelson, a finan-
cial executive at the big instrument and computer
importer Erik Ferner AB, says that “in general, I think
the market isn’t going to be too bad.”

Communications-equipment makers generally are a
notch below industrial-equipment makers in their en-
thusiasm for 1975. Electronics’ survey spots the sector at
$164 million next year, up minimally over this year’s es-
timated $156 million. Ake Nylander, a director of Stan-
dard Radio & Telephon AB, an ITT company, notes that
the growth of telephone traffic has started to level off, a
state of affairs that doesn’t put any special pressure on
the state telecommunications agency, Televerket, to
pour money into its network. And as investment growth
slows, the companies likely to have their orders cut last
are those that Televerket owns in whole or in part.

The fastest growth in sight in telecommunications is
for data traffic. Televerket is now putting together a

Off the ground. A small run of interceptor versions of Sweden’s Vig-
gen jet will see the country’s avionics makers through the year.

76

trial data network that’s scheduled for service in 1976.
There’s also a teletypewriter network in the works—
based on two big exchanges and 27 smaller ones—that
should be completed by the end of the decade. Most of
the business is destined for Ellemtel.

The military-electronics business, on the other hand,
is slated to stay flat in money terms—another way of
saying it’s on the wane. Some help at home for radar
and avionics producers will come from the interceptor
versions of the Viggen military jet that the defense de-
partment has ordered from SAAB-Scania. In late No-
vember, Stansaab, SAAB-Scania’s electronics outfit, was
in the running for a $75 million contract to equip three
large airfields in the Soviet Union with air-traffic-con-
trol gear. The outlook would turn absolutely euphoric,
of course, if by some miracle SAAB flew off with the “air-
craft order of the century” that should be decided next
year when Belgium, Denmark, Holland, and Norway
order planes to replace their over-age F-104 Star-
fighters. But no one really expects that.

Nobody expects anything sensational, either, in the
color-TV market in Sweden next year. Ulf Tidics, head
of market research at Svenska Philips, figures the mar-
ket peaked this year at over 300,000 sets. A temporary
cut in the purchase tax was partly responsible for that
peak so, at best, next year’s figure might match this
year’s. More likely, there will be a drop, and Electronics’
consensus forecasts that the color-TV market will shade
down to some $241 million from this year’s $253 mil-
lion. Monochrome-TV sales will fall off, too, along with
radios. Radio/recorder sales will rise, as will the decibel
count at the cash registers of hi-fi makers, but not
enough to recoup the drop-off for video. So all told, the
entertainment electronics market will remain essentially
flat next year somewhere just below $395 million.

Spain

On top of the uncertainty permeating the rest of West-
ern Europe, Spain faces an especially worrisome politi-
cal situation. Should the aged and ailing Generalissimo
Franco depart the scene in the midst of economic hard
times, the social fabric of Spain would be doubly tested.
Clearly, Premier Carlos Arias shares this perception.
With his plan to revitalize the economy by next year,
massive government spending is in sight.

Barring political turmoil, then, the Spanish economy
should do all right in 1975, despite fairly high infla-
tion—something like this year’s 12%. For the entire mar-
ket Electronics’ survey forecasts a gain from this year’s
$653 million to $765 million in 1975. That’s a climb of
17%—not bad even when adjusted for price inflation.

Entertainment electronics traditionally tops the list,
and that will continue in 1975, according to the survey.
The total figure should be about $275 million. Comput-
ers aren’t far behind at $218 million, and communi-
cations equipment follows at $173 million. Although
much smaller than the other three, industrial-electronics
sales are predicted to rise by 21%, to $46 million.

Electronics is listed in the Arias program as one of the
“industrias preferentes.” Outsiders who want to invest in
them with Spanish partners qualify for a special pack-

Electronics/December 26, 1974

SPANISH ELECTRONICS MARKETS FORECASTS
{IN MILLIONS OF DOLLARS)

Assembled equipment, total
Consumer products
Computers

Communications
Industrial electronics
Test and measuring
Medical electronics
Components

Exchange rate: $1 = 58 pesetas

age of inducements, like preferential loans, tax relief,
and waivers on duties on most plant equipment. In re-
turn, the government wants guarantees that the enter-
prises will grow to worthwhile sizes and eventually ex-
port a significant chunk of their output.

Overall, the program covers a broad spectrum of pro-
fessional electronics: computers, communications, in-
struments, industrial hardware, defense equipment, and
medical electronics. But the initial push will be in com-
puters; the government has been trying for two years
now to set up a “native” producer under the wing of the
Instituto Nacional de Industria (INI). This fall, Japan’s
Fujitsu Ltd. seemed to have the inside track to join
forces with INI and Telesincro SA in a joint venture. But
by late-November, rumor had it that West Germany’s
Nixdorf Computer AG was back in the running.

At Telesincro, Spain’s sole Spanish-owned computer
maker, the feeling is the decision may not come in 1975.
But that doesn’t particularly bother Juan Majd, the
company’s president. Telesincro has been doing quite
well on its own. Sales this year hit $85 million, up a star-
tling 62% over 1973’s figure.

Majo expects sales will swell around that level in
1975 and then take off again. The company has new pe-
ripherals and a new range of office computers in its
pipeline, but Majo will shift to new markets like point-
of-sale hardware and digital scales to meet the com-
pany’s ambitious expansion goals. Industrialist Juan
Luis Heredero’s Piher SA now is the largest shareholder
in Telesincro, and Heredero wants it to grow 50% an-
nually for a few years after the economy starts to pick
up. Ordinarily, expansion like that would endanger a
small company, but Telesincro is backed by both Piher
and a big Barcelona bank.

By contrast, Tv-set makers’ expansion plans are
tinged with moderation. The government has kept en-
tertainment electronics off the preferential list and has
further stung set makers by upping the tax on radios
and TV sets, as well as curbing credit buying. Nor is
there much chance that the government-run broadcast
network will officially start colorcasts next year, a move
the set makers count on to stimulate sales.

But experimental broadcasts continue, and there’s an
embryonic color-Tv market taking shape. Color-set
sales this year ran roughly $25 million, and they'll go up
to $65 million next, according to Electronics’ forecasts,
which are based on inputs obtained before recent tax

Electronics/December 26, 1974

hike and credit curbs. When the market does finally
take off, Spanish set makers expect to be well along the
runway. Iberia Radio SA, for example, has readied a
completely modular 26-inch color receiver and is pro-
ducing a dozen or so a day.

With set makers’ output on a plateau, the parts
makers need something to cheer them on in 1975. Elec-
tronics’ forecast peg the market at $116 million next
year, up from this year’s $110 million. Some producers
even think the market could wind up below the 1974
mark. Piher marketing director Javier Garcia-Nieto
points out that components sales fell sharply during the
last four months of 1974 and probably won’t recover
until late next year. Unless the recovery comes fast, he
sees no chance of getting up to this year’s levels.

Belgium

The times are out of joint, and business has boomed in
Belgium this year in unusual contrast to downturns in
the economic fortunes of her two biggest trading part-
ners, West Germany and Holland.

But Belgium’s turn will come in 1975, the country’s
economy watchers generally predict. This year’s real
growth in the gross national product has been about
4.6%, while the figure is expected to slide to 3% next
year. The nominal GNP checks out at roughly $54.5 bil-
lion for 1974 and is expected to reach $62.7 billion next
year, but those figures are distorted by inflation—some-
thing like 16% this year.

It all points to an adequate year—not much more—for
Belgian electronic-equipment markets. “Everyone is
being careful about their purchases,” says Henri van
Gysel, a marketing executive at Manufacture Belge de
Lampes et de Matériel Electronique (MBLE), a Philips
affiliate. Next year’s equipment markets should total
$642 million, according to the Electronics survey. That’s
12% above the estimated $571 million for 1974. But, as
always, price rises mask the real gains.

There’s not much doubt over which sector of elec-
tronics will move up sharply next year. Wages are rising
between 16% and 20% annually because practically ev-
eryone is covered by an escalator clause that ties wages
to a consumer-price index. That is pushing industrialists
to invest heavily in labor-saving automation gear. Also,
the energy crisis has touched off a number of new nu-
clear power plants to come on line over the next few
years. The upshot is a projected spurt of 31% for indus-
trial electronics, to $76 million.

Observers disagree over the outlook for consumer
electronics, and particularly color-Tv receivers. Color-
set sales this year have run higher than expected—be-
tween 230,000 and 250,000 sets instead of the expected
200,000.

One school of thought has it that the market can’t go
much higher than 250,000 sets in 1975. A more bullish
school ties its optimism to the fact that market satura-
tion point is still far off in Belgium; its adherents believe
the boom will be back after a slow first quarter and that
next year’s sales will top 300,000 units. Electronics’ con-
sensus forecasts has next year’s sales at just over $142
million, up from $118 million this year. That would

77

carry the whole entertainment-electronics sector to
about $240 million.

However the set makers fare, operators of cable-TV
systems seem set for solid growth once more. Belgium is
farthest along with cable-Tv in Western Europe with
about 600,000 of the country’s 2.5 million set owners
wired in. Another 250,000 sets may be added next year
by the country’s 40-odd cable-Tv companies.

All the same, spending for cable-Tv equipment will
drop next year. Most systems already have their active
equipment installed. Adding subscribers is mainly a
matter of hooking them up. But the cable people will
spawn other business for communications-equipment
builders. The government telecommunications agency,
RTT, is moving ahead with a microwave-cable network
to feed telecasts from neighboring countries and Great
Britain to cable-Tv operators throughout Belgium.

RTT spending for traditional telecommunications net-
works probably will rise next year. That’s a turnabout
from this year when the agency had its credits cut 20%
as part of the government’s antiinflation program. For
1975, RTT is figured for a “normal” increase—about 5%
over the original 1974 level; “but we could be cut back
again,” warns an Official of the agency.

Any shortcomings at the RTT next year should be off-
set partly by orders for military equipment. To be sure,
the avionics companies are counting on fallout from the
upcoming buy of 115 lightweight fighters to replace the
aging F-104 Starfighters, but it may not come in time to
help 1975 business much. Belgium has joined Denmark,
Holland, and Norway to buy some $2 billion worth of
fighters from among the competing French Dassault
Mirage F-1, the Swedish Viggen, the General Dynamics
YF-16, and the Northrop YF-17. It looks as if it will be
mid-year or later before the choice can be made. But al-
ready some advance fallout has come as France and the
U.S. maneuver for the business, billed as the arms or-
der of the century.

As it was last year, there’s a long list of military
equipment coming out of the shops now, or about to.
Among others, MBLE has sizable orders from the Bel-
gian and Dutch navies for fire-control displays on four
frigates, from the Belgian Army for $12.5 million in
gear for two Epervier drone systems, and from NATO for
Sea Sparrow hardware. Sabca, an aircraft producer, ex-
pects to get into production next year on laser-guided-
missile systems for 120 Leopard tanks.

BELGIAN ELECTRONICS MARKETS FORECASTS
(IN MILLIONS OF DOLLARS)

Assembled equipment, total
Consumer products
Computers
Communications
Industrial electronics
Test and measuring
Medical electronics

Components

Exchange rate: $1 = 38 francs

78

Switzerland

There’s more to Switzerland—luckily for the Swiss econ-
omy—than farmers making cheese in Alpine huts and
gnomes making money in Zurich banks. An industrious
throng of skilled craftsmen peoples the country’s facto-
ries, and their specialty products—like precision ma-
chinery, watches, and quality chemicals—have carried
the economy this year, largely through surprisingly high
exports.

Even so, the Swiss seem headed into what is, for them,
strange territory: a plateau of zero economic growth. At
an estimated $48.5 billion, the country’s gross national
product this year, when adjusted for double-digit infla-
tion, is only slightly more than 1% above last year’s fig-
ure. Economists figure that next year’s GNP growth will
slip closer to zero as the government holds to an anti-
inflation program that has hit construction particularly
hard and has curbed capital investments.

So it seems that Swiss electronic-equipment suppliers
will be in for a staid, yet far from disastrous, year. Elec-
tronics’ survey points to equipment markets totalling
just over $527 million in 1975. That works out to 10%
rise over the 1974 estimate of $480 million.

TV-set makers next year might get the feeling they’re
dragging a cog-railway car uphill. ““There’s no external
stimulant like the Olympic Games or the World Cup,”
says one market researcher of color-TV prospects, “so
the growth rate has to slow.” There’s some hope for
growth in hi-fi equipment and radio receivers. All told,
however, entertainment-electronics sales are pegged to
edge up only a little, to $163 million next year from this
year’s $154 million.

As for communications-equipment makers, they are
not expecting too much either. The Swiss postal and
telecommunications ministry will be working under an
austerity budget again next year. And avionics produc-
ers are still waiting for the fallout that will come when
the government finally orders the 60 to 80 jet fighters it
has been mulling over since 1967. Time will force a de- .
cision; it may come next year. At year’s end the leading
contender seems to be the Northrop F-5 Tiger.

Almost by default, computers are the market leaders.
Electronics’ survey sees a rise from $169 million this
year to better than $191 million next. The bulk of the
business, according to one computer company, is now
coming from old customers upgrading their original sys-
tems. And a computer marketing manager predicts a
shift to smaller-scale installations over-all. “Everybody
is becoming a lot more price-conscious,” he explains.

There will be some new systems business, however.
The city of Zurich, for example, ‘has decided to buy a
Honeywell-built model 6060 for an integrated manage-
ment system. And the post office is still moving ahead—
albeit slowly—with a plan to computerize telephone op-
erations. When finally installed, over the next several
years, this will be a $75 million investment.

Components suppliers are in for a modest 8.5% lift to
$128 million next year from this year’s $118 million, ac-
cording to the survey. The numbers are not sensational,

‘but the components sector bears watching; a couple of

Electronics/December 26, 1974

SWISS ELECTRONICS MARKETS FORECASTS
(IN MILLIONS OF DOLLARS)

Assembled equipment, total
Consumer products
Computers

Communications
Industrial electronics
Test and measuring
Medical electronics
Components

Exchange rate: $1 = 2.9 francs

big Swiss companies plan to give the country some in-
dependence from the U.S. semiconductor houses, which
now supply most of the integrated circuits and digital
displays to Swiss electronic-watch makers.

Ebauches SA, whose output of some 2.5 million elec-
tronic movements this year makes it the front-runner in
that field in Switzerland, says it plans to set up its own
Ic plant, perhaps breaking ground for it next year.
There’s talk that Ebauches may take on an American
partner for the venture.

The second company on the move is Brown, Boveri &
Cie, Switzerland’s largest electrical/electronics outfit.
The company went into pilot-line production of liquid-
crystal displays this year at a new plant. Company offi-
cials say the facility will go into mass production during
1975, building up to an annual output of several hun-
dred thousand pieces. Orders are already in, the com-
pany says, from all over the world. Its liquid-crystal dis-
play is a field-effect type that gives a dark image on a
light background at very low voltage.

Denmark

Official economy watchers around Copenhagen these
days are mostly melancholy Danes, and with reason.
For starters, there’s continued political instability with a
minority government. The inflation rate is close to 20%,
unemployment has shot past 8%, and the payments
deficit doubled this year to about $1 billion. And, if not
already there, Denmark is heading into recession.
Ordinarily, a soft home market does not impact too
heavily on Danish electronics producers. They’re heavy

DANISH ELECTRONICS MARKETS FORECASTS
(IN MILLIONS OF DOLLARS)

Assembled equipment, total
Consumer products
Computers

Communications
Industrial electronics
Test and measuring
Medical electronics
Components

Exchange rate: $1 = 5.95 kroner

Electronics/December 26, 1974

exporters—so much so that this year’s $335 million of
sales abroad adds up to more than the totals for beer,
furniture, and ships combined. But what’s happening in
Denmark is happening in most other Western countries.
“We'll have some slowdown in growth,” says Frede
Ask, director of the country’s electronics producers’ as-
sociation. This year’s output totaled $430 million, some
10% above the 1973 level. The 1975 gain probably will
be just a few percentage points.

Nonetheless, some Danish electronics companies ex-
pect to see their sales figures move out strongly again
next year. For example, Mogens Andersen, marketing
manager for Soren T. Lyngso, expects industrial-auto-
mation systems will climb close to 25%, and the com-
pany predicts a strong market for its process-oriented
STL 250 microcomputer, built around an Intel 8008
chip. At Christian Rovsing A/S, the company has a
strong backlog of orders from big international organi-
zations like ESRO and CERN, among others. It has inter-
esting new hardware, too, such as its fast preprocessing
computer for signal handling. At A/S Regnecentralen,
Denmark’s computer maker, the word is that the RC
3600 data-communications support system is “selling
like hotcakes.” Danish hearing-aid producers expect
their worldwide markets will hold next year, too, partic-
ularly if the United Kingdom goes through with its plan
to give away hearing aids through its health service.

Companies that concentrate on the Danish home
market obviously can’t count on much. Electronics’ sur-
vey puts the 1975 market for assembled equipment at
just under $410 million. That’s an 11% climb, but is well
below the inflation rate. Entertainment electronics still
remains a key market, checking in at $190 million for
1975. A sharp falling-off in the growth of color-Tv sales
looks inevitable, but it has been much better than ex-
pected this year to reach roughly $80 million. But next
year’s rise will carry the sector only a little past $91 mil-
lion. Industrial electronics and computers, then, seem to
be poised to make the strongest gains.

As for components suppliers, they face a slow year.
The consensus figures predict a market of $105 million
next year, 7% above the 1974 level. Even this forecast
could be high in light of recent cutbacks in production
plans.

Norway

The tremendous oil reserves under the sea off Norway’s
fjord-studded coast apparently assure affluence for this
small country for years to come.

Just the start of the job of getting the oil to market
has brought boom times to Norway. There’s inflation, to
be sure, and cash flow is a problem for a lot of busi-
nesses. “But the overall mood is optimistic,” reports
Gustav A. Ring, whose intercom company sells to a
wide spectrum of Norwegian business.

It’s not hard to spot the electronics sectors where oil-
drilling operations are spurring sales. Platform-shore
communications, data-logging, and dynamic-position-
ing come immediately to mind. The standout commer-
cial prize to date, though, has gone to Japan’s Mitsu-
bishi Electric and Fujitsu Ltd. They have won a

79

NORWEGIAN ELECTRONICS MARKETS FORECASTS
(IN MILLIONS OF DOLLARS)

Assembled equipment, total
Consumer products

Computers
Communications
Industrial electronics
Test and measuring
Medical electronics
Components

Exchange rate: $1 = 5.5 krone

contract worth about $9 million to build the first phase
of a satellite-communications system that will link drill-
ing platforms to a ground station in southwest Norway
through an Intelsat satellite.

Norwegian electronics companies that don’t make
equipment for oil company use have mixed feelings
about the North Sea oil. The country’s electronics pro-
ducers export close to 40% of their output, and they
worry that the oil boom will lift costs and salary levels
so high that Norwegian electronics products won’t stay
competitive. There’s the worry, too, that there will be a
shift of intellectual resources to the oil industry.

So far, though, none of these fears have materialized.
Norwegian electronic-equipment producers last year
turned out some $261 million worth of equipment, and
there’s something around 20% growth in sight for this
year. Exports are holding up. Ring has sold its Garex
radio-communications-switching equipment to custom-
ers ranging from Saudi Arabia to New Zealand, for ex-
ample. Nera A/s bid jointly with RCA but missed out on
the first phase of the oil-field satellite-communications
system at home. However, it continues to pick up orders
for its microwave links from as far off as Latin America
and the Middle East.

The home market too, looks healthy, and Electronics
forecasts 1975 electronic equipment sales of $300 million,
up 15%. Worth noting on the forecast chart is the
spurt in color-TV sales—up 31% next year to $47 million.
At first glance, that might seem due to the official start
of colorcasts next Jan. 1. Actually, it’s mainly nothing
more than a burgeoning market in a booming economy:
there have been “experimental” colorcasts since 1971
and some 60% of Norwegian TV programs already are
in color.

Strong prospects both at home and abroad make for
a climate that fosters new companies, and a couple of
interesting new arrivals came along this year. By joining
forces to set up United Marine Electronics, Nera and
the LM Ericsson subsidiary A/S Elektrisk Bureau be-
came joint owners of what they call the world’s
largest marine-radio company. Elektro-Union, Nor-
way’s largest electrical/electronics combine, has backed
electronics engineer Lars Monrad-Krohn in a firm
called Data Industri A/s. Monrad-Krohn, formerly of
Norsk Dataelektronikk A/S, expects to sell more than
1,000 of his Mycro-One microcomputers built around
Intel 8080 chips, throughout Europe next year.

80

Finland

Finland is a land of extremes as far as Electronics’ an-
nual survey goes. Next year’s total market for equip-
ment adds up to just under $260 million, and that puts
Finland at the bottom of the list by market size. But
with markets that are predicted to rise by 17.5%, Fin-
land is at the top of the list for growth.

The 17.5% spurt will come despite a fairly stiff set of
problems for the economy. Real growth sagged from
last year’s 6% to 3.5% this year, and there’s a further
slide to 3% in view for 1975. Inflation will drop a little
next year but still remain in the low teens. And there
will be the mounting deficit in the balance of payments
to fret over.

For all this, electronic-equipment suppliers are rea-
sonably confident about 1975. Entertainment-electron-
ics sales should run particularly strong, largely because
the government is expected to ease its restrictions on
imports of consumer durables. The survey spots the
market at just above $101 million, up 23% over 1974.
Color-TY sets, hi-fi equipment, and radios are predicted
to provide the main push here.

The outlook abroad

With this kind of potential growth at home, only ex-
port markets could give the country’s set makers trou-
bles. The largest of them, Salora Oy, alone produces
about twice as many color-TV sets as the Finnish market
consumes, Salora insists it is ready for the year ahead,
with its entire planned production sold out. Even if its
major British customer, Granada Tv Rentals, cuts back
on deliveries, Salora officials say, they can compensate
easily in Sweden or in new markets like Australia.

What’s more, the government plans to invest some
$5.7 million over the next two or three years to set up a
color-tube plant with an initial capacity of 300,000
tubes a year—probably precision in-line types. The idea
is to cut down imports of tubes. Salora, which put a TV-
components subsidiary into operation this year, will be
a minority partner in the venture, and OY Nokia AB
may join in, too. Salora also is toying with the idea of
going into production of consumer-grade semiconduc-
tors, including linear ICs for TV sets. Oo

FINNISH ELECTRONICS MARKETS FORECASTS

(IN MILLIONS OF DOLLARS)

Assembled equipment, total
Consumer products

Computers
Communications
Industrial electronics
Test and measuring
Medical electronics
Components

Exchange rate: $1 = 3.8 marks

Reprints are available at $4 each. Write Electronics Reprints Department, P.O. Box 669,
Hightstown, N.J. Copyright 1974 Electronics, a McGraw-Hill publication,

Electronics/December 26, 1974

European 1975
omponents markets

1974 1975 1975 1974 1975, 1974 1975 1974 1975 1974 1975

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Tubes, total

Cathode-ray tubes (except for TV)
Image and light-sensing tubes
Microwave tubes

Power tubes (below 1 GHz)
Receiving tubes

TV picture tubes, black-and-white 127.9
TV picture tubes, color 744.4

LLL LLLLLLLLLLLLLLLLLLLLLLLLLBBPLBLLLLLLLLLL LLL LLL LLL LLL LL LLL LLL LLL LLL LL LL CC TT
Total components consumption 189.9 194.7 97.6 105.5 88.5 104.2 961.01,018.4 336.7 357.9 171.6 176.2 62.1 67.8 109.8 116.1 200.4 217.2 117.8 128.1 970.31,017.8 1,940.1 1,960.9 5,245.8 5,464.8

S

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® Copyright 1974 Electronics A McGraw-Hill Publication

Factory sales in millions
of U.S. dollars

Note: Estimates in this

chart are based on inputs
obtained mostly in September
and October 1974 and reflect
the outlook for 1975 at

that time. Some of the nearly
200 sources who supplied
data have since revised

their market forecasts.

The figures show consensus
estimates for consumption of
components used to produce
equipment destined for both
home and export markets.
Participants were asked to
value markets at factory
prices in current local
money or to specify the
exchange rate used for
estimates in dollars. All
estimates were first computed
in local currency and then
converted into dollars

using the rates shown below
for both 1974 and 1975.
Because of fluctuations in
exchange rates and some
differences in categories,
estimates in this chart
should not be compared
with those published in
previous years without
correcting for these changes.

The rates for this chart

(per U.S. $1):

Belgium, 38 francs

Denmark, 5.95 kroner

Finland, 3.8 marks

France, 4.8 francs

Italy, 675 lire

Netherlands, 2.65 guilders

Norway, 5.5 krone

Spain, 58 pesetas

Sweden, 4.35 krona

Switzerland, 2.9 francs

United Kingdom, 43 pence
(€1 = $2.33)

West Germany, 2.6 marks

*Less than $75,000

European 1979

| s ws
¢ I/@ f Aa es (SF 8
equipment markets 4s ge | < Sf “S$ <
i)
Factory sales in
cainis of U.S. dollars 1974 1975 1974 1975 1974 1975 1974 1975 1974 1975 1974 1975 1974 1975 1974 1975 1974 1975 1974 1975 1974 1975 1974 1975 1974 1975
iste: Eetimnatec in Consumer, total 210.8 240.0 173.7 189.8 82.6 101.5 801.0 851.4 281.3 306.6 322.4 3529 84.0 98.5 215.0 274.7 396.5 391.3 153.6 1626 1,404.1 1,451.7 2,138.4 2,278.9 6,263.4 6,699.9
ar dart are hawk Ge Audio tape recorders and players 17.1 17.1 eee: «68.2 «113 ee eeD 6024.4 «= ee ge) «610.0 12.2 9ewgeo 29.9 32.2 ete, 104.8 114.2 Geeeegeetgee: 534.5 560.5
t [ere vi Hi-fi equipment (meets DIN 45500 standard) 15.5 179 35.3 381 87 126 729 76.0 88 104 328 347 18.2 20.0 10.0 120 42.5 46.0 145 165 40.8 466 2154 230.8 515.4 561.6
inputs obtained mostly in Phonographs and phonoradio combinations 47 «5.0 pee «= 5.30 (CGPS ROO «6028.1 31.1 ee ge «603.3 «43.3 eee $814.9 13.8 Meee 6163.1 177.1 76.9 808 387.9 416.5
September and October Radios (includes car radios) 21.0 2249 460 976 105 131° 969 1000 415 444° 968 394 9.1 91/9220 940 20.7 218091509 141 121.2 1305 = 92682) 9769 678.9 707.3
1974 and reflect the Radio recorders 13.1 158 ae 6687.9 20.4 22.9 9.6 11.8); qgeetee 861.3 061.5 Gee 8617.2 20.0 Gees 70.2 93.2 111.5 126.9 280.1 335.8
outlook for 1975 at that TV sets, black-and-white 21.0 19.7) ee #4105 105) 99886 8at7 145.2 148.1) Q gee) 5.7 5.1 ERegag 4618.4 16.1 eens 88.5 74.6 238.5 219.2 844.0 818.0
time. Some of the nearly TV sets, color 118.4 142.1 80.7 91.6 31.6 39.5 333.3 3646 23.7 34.1 1698 196.2 364 47.3 25.0 65.0 252.9 241.4 77.6 821 815.5 815.5 1,057.7 1,180.0 3,022.6 3,300.2
oo eee eee ee Communications, total 115.9 1242 588 625 25.3 283 7947 921.0 290.9 367.0 86.3 107.4 53.0 60.4 153.8 172.8 155.7 1638 80.5 903 6656 7689 6130 636.8 3,093.5 3,503.4
pr ert ; Broadcast - —- Gave ey 610 )—(Ci1.0 eet 43 4.77 eg) 63.60645 Meee «66.9 064.6 eee 16.3 17.5 14.5 111 111.2 115.6
Cir market Torecasts. Cable TV 9.2 79 ¢eeee 604:)|(CO7 05 06 0.1 0.4 Boe =| 09 09 gee 61.6) (2.1 eee 7.0 8.1 es = 21:2. 205
The figures show consensus Closed-circuit TV 42 4.7 et 60.70 (O08 eee? 6118) «13.38 eee: «620.9 «(1.1 eee «1.1 s«d12.4 13:3. 442 PVA 252 76.6 88.6
estimates for consumption Data communications 0.6 1.3 - a - - 37.5 60.4 3.0 3.7 oa = O09 13 @¢eneeeeee 823.4 «| (3.7 eee 112 5 11.5 17.3 72.6 111.4
of equipment in each Intercoms and intercom systems 6.6 7.9 26 05 O05 34.4 39.6 4.4 2 94 102 3.1 3.6 Geeeeeeee: «6211.0 11.9 eee 10.7 11.6 20.0 2 eet 131.6 149.6
catia ielicthes acudacil Microwave relay systems 20 21 eetge 863.7 439 Seen «618.5 21.2 eee 6310277 Gee 65.7) | (5.7 eee 47 5.8 34.6 423 164.0 178.7
h y p Navigation aids (except radar) - — Mapes «463.2 «4934 eee egg «659.2 «681.5 eee) «610.9 11.6 elgg: 18.4 184 ¢0eeeeeee: §=891200 137.5 404 423 373.6 429.3
there or not. Imports Radar (airborne, ground, and marine) - -( eae 32 #37) fee weeg 51.8 81.5 Bie gee) 127 13.6 Mee ie «(18.4 18.4 §=6168.0 191.0 Baten, 568.3 669.5
are valued at landed cost. Radio communications (except broadcast) 7.4 9.2 2 Senos 47 = 5.4 S757 102) 415 47.4 0 feo 54 6.2 0a 6s 6.9 SO0maigeetia 174.7 198.0 138.5 142.3 523.2 580.7
Participants were asked Telephone switching, PABX2 1.7 1.9 ies - = 8.3 12.5 7.4 8.9 ee eo C404 eee «220.7 «(21.8 eee 2.3 4.7 = = 47.9 58.3
to value markets at factory Telephone switching, public? 68.4 72.4 10 47 26 -. 3.4 16.6 25.0 = = 7.0 20.4 1.1 3.6 * => 46.0 51.7 gi 8 gare 55.9 81.5 - ~ 219.5 287.6
prices in current local Telephone and telegraph carrier 158 168 67 70 53 55 2437 2708 889 992 92 100 10.0 109 68.0 720 15.6 16.1 27.6 293 815 81.5 2115 1923 7838 811.6
pene if gin ag Computers and related equipment’, total 153.0 167.1 89.1 100.8 66.0 748 1,129.6 1,265.3 471.5 525.9 270.3 307.8 77.4 86.6 198.8 217.8 184.5 207.6 1689 1919 6738 768.7 1,978.3 2,202.7 5,461.2 6,117.0
ti *e in doll Analog and hybrid computers 03 O03) 4 * * * 2.9 3.4 0.7 0.7 9 07 0.1 OO. pee ee «207 «608 Beene 3.3 3.3 54 = «6.3 14.7 16.4
estimates in dolars. Data-processing systems, total 109.4 859 47.9 53.6 32.3 35.8 664.2 7166 199.8 219.4 131.6 141.8 35.0 37.4 1024 1045 90.2 95.0, 97.2 1042 325.7 368.2 941.5 1,025.4 2,757.2 2,986.9
All estimates were first Mini (system value less than $50k) 50 66! S05. 38) 20 2.4 35.0 50.0 87 120 ‘a 109 60 78 8980 965 64 9858 i8a =195 43.8 56.0 49.2 65.8 181.5 241.9
computed in local currency Small ($50k--$420k) 33.5 368 160 176 53 7.9 1792 1875 66.7 785 264 29.0 123 127 38.0 220 10.3 106 293 293 37.3 44.3 223.1 250.0 677.4 726.2
and then converted into Medium ($420k--$1,680k) 48.7 394 176 188 184 189 2500 2604 874 948 521 653 93 104 530 600 264 299 345 365 1398 1514 4000 423.1 1,137.2 1,199.5
dollars using the rates Large ($1,680k and up) 22 3.1 #113 134 #66 66 2000 2187 37.0 341 460 460 74 65 64 160 47.1 460 23.1 269 1048 1165 269.2 2865 761.1 819.3
shown below for both Add-on memories (core and semiconductor) 3.7 42 88.9 85 17 17 95 960 148 148 G8 87 16 189 86 986 50 57) 41 9&2 37.3 40.8 846 925 1909 211.5
1974 and 1975. Because Data-entry and data-output peripherals 16.7 224 498 496 79 92 4467 4410 74.1 996 958 400 7.8 98.2 220 260 138 16.5 gst fe 58.2 65.2 230.7 250.0 618.6 709.3
of fluctuations mn Data-storage equipment 30.5 38.1 202 225 145 15.5 299.2 260.0 37.0 37.0 53.6 584 131 136 43.0 490 34.5 368 379 455 1305 139.8 461.5 515.0 1,105.5 1,231.2
exchange rates and some scaler equipment + _ Sh e7? 853 «745 ee es 6444 «(548 Lo as 6.0 182 He 150 12.6 138 5.5 6.9 69.9 hag 57.7 73.1 Fea Biss
; P : ectronic calculators, desk type E ; - - = - 71.1 77.0 A r 5 5 2 a f i - -
eo ooniga ye rg es Electronic calculators, portable - - - - (3.9 {4.6 = - 14.8 178 G68 2 45 G9 eG 88 48 SIR] = vapelle Dace { 1923 {2308 ioe) (es
prtninsipig a shes ott 4 Point-of-sale equipment 10 142 08994 04 06 z S 148 148° Sato 0.2 O02 fee 2, «25.7 «(13.8 ee ee - - 46 9.6 37.4 57.3
S ee
with those published Industrial, total 58.0 75.6 30.0 37.1 24.7 284 182.6 187.3 1438 172.1 95.1 1079 235 26.9 38.1 46.1 562 63.1 428 468 266.1 275.3 4318 479.1 1,392.7 1,545.7
in previous years without Machine-tool controls 20 2.18 Ga OS ore Ue 0G 118 1335 SRR ey, 61.80 =62.1 ee 6230 «626 ee W600 (12.1 21.5 23.1 73.0 77.9
correcting for these Photoelectric controls 0.6 07 0.5 06 0.2 02 3.1 2.7 1.5 1.6 10 1.0 2.1 2.2 0.9 1.2 1.3 1.4 14 «1.4 14.9 14.9 25.8 27.7 53.3 55.6
changes. Pollution-monitoring 2.6 11.8 = - - 29 234 - - aoe SS Sa ig 5.1 5.8 = 2 17.8 30.3
Power electronics 2.2 240 eee 220 2.3 11.4 12.5 65 80 eae 13 «41.4 Bee «226 «63.0 eee 68.0 71.1 16.8 19.2 119.0 129.2
isis vais ter dds Process-control systems 48.7 56.6 25.2 31.6 184 208 135.4 1396 963 1185 755 868 164 19.1 25.0 29.5 46.0 51.7 31.0 341 1514 1561 3269 3646 996.2 1,109.0
hart ( US. $1) Ultrasonic cleaning and inspection 0:3 «6°03 0.1 0.1 0.1 0.1 3.7 39 0.7 0.7 pe pees 3 J 04 04 06 07 03 0.4 03 0:3 1.6 1.6 7.7 8.5 19.3 20.7
chart (per U.o. Welding (with electronic controls) 0.5 05 eee 622 ©«=«(29 135273 1.8 19 saa «600.5)6(0.6 Meee )«=6 1.0011 eens 6.5 6.7 23.1 25.4 50.7 55.2
Belgium, 38 francs X-ray gauging and inspection 1.1 1:2 1.6) 48 0. at 8.2 ee. 25.2 28.1 gee «€61.00~—=(«id1.1 1.1 fe, 2.7 829 bY ape FI 7.0 7.0 10.0 10.6 63.4 67.8
Denmark, 5.95 kroner Medical, total 15.0 163 83 89 15.7 19.1 1243 1431 33.5 37.0 214 219 11.2 133 32.0 36.0 26.3 282 15.1 159 104.0 1100 3200 3510 726.8 800.7
Finland, 3.8 marks Diagnostic (except X-ray) 3.0 3.9 Semeeee 65.406 (66.6 Reeen 59 6.7 uMeee 63.6 )06|64.4 eee 65.7 «66.2 Bee 120° 13:2 96.0 108.0 191.5 217.0
France, 4.8 francs Patient-monitoring 18 1.9 ome 8624 «63.0 94 10.0 5.2 59 oenOeeeoe 1.4 «1.6 eemeeoe: 0.4 0.6 Bagge oe 4.8 5.6 34.0 38.0 67.8 75.7
Italy, 675 lire Therapeutic (except X-ray) 13 1.3 oe 68618620 Pes 1.7 19 ape «608:«=«CO0.9D Meee «61.8 «1.9 Bee 3.2 3.2 20.0 22.0 37.3 42.8
Netherlands, 2.65 sitiders X-ray, diagnostic and therapeutic 8.9 9.2 Begmeemey 6G.) 067.5 Meepeeeamg «620.7 «6922.5 aiigeeieme 5.4 «26.4 BReeee, 18.4 19.5 San 84.0 88.0 170.0 183.0 430.2 465.2
Norway, 5.5 krone Test and measurement, total 18.2 192 91 99 60 7.3 1266 1368 368 42.4 489 544 12.3 143 15.3 17.4 202 219 183 198 90.1 98.9 1258 130.4 527.6 572.7
Spain, 58 pesetas Amplifiers, laboratory type _ 0.2 02 fea 860.11 27 2.9 0.2 0.2 eee «(0.120 O.1 ee «= 0.2 )Ss(O.2 ett 12 1.2 PR.) 2579 88 869.1
Sweden, 4.35 krona Calibrators and standards, active and passive 0.7 0.6 0.2 0.2 0.1 0.1 3.1 3.1 0.5 0.5 2.8 3.0 0.5 0.6 0.5 0.6 03 .. 03 1.1 1.1 2.6 2.6 4.2 4.0 16.6 16.7
aed 20? Components testers 18 2.0 eee §60.206|«(02 230° 13:7 24 26@eaieeewge 07 0.8 Meee 3.0 3.4 Seneg 2.1 2.6 2.1 2.3 31.6 35.5
Switzerland, 2.9 francs Counters and timers 3.0 3.2 Ga ee 04 0.5 8.7 9.6 2.4 28 fgeeeee: «40.7 «40.8 feos «61.8 861.9 Bee thy) 8.1 8.6 8.8 39.3 42.4
United Kingdom, 43 pence Meters, analog (except panel types) 17 16 Gees 600306=«(C04 a 0.8 Shee «420.6 «60.6 Pee «600.5 )«=(0.5 Sea 5.8 5.8 6. 236 27 2251
(£1 = $2.33) Meters, digital (except panel types) 1.4 1.7 Gee «6C05:)~6COG 6.9 7.3 26 3.3 Meee 80.7 O9 Megteneme: 1.4 1.7 Gememeae 70. 6 6.5 §67.0 33.3 37.6
West Germany, 2.6 marks Meters, all panel types - - 05 #05 04 O04 133° .139 28 270i «600.2 )6«|6(0:3 feo, «62.2 «2.3 Ses 3.4 3.4 HO: shuts 34.1 36.1
: Microwave test and measuring(above1GHz) 09 09 O08 O09 04 05 HA 406) 5.2 Wwe oo I 8.1 8.8 13:35 13:3 53.3 58.6
Oscillators : 08 0.7 eGgeeoee 0.1 0.1 7 cep Be 0.8 O09 Ges ag 0.4 O06 fuboemos 0.3 0.3 gen 2.8 2.8 Bae 2 Bo 20.9 21.3
‘includes stand-alone Oscilloscopes and accessories 28 3.0 feeeeeees, §61.G062.0 Beige 67.70 8. ee «6160618 Gee «4.40 (4G Re 16.3 18.2 27.7 28.8 95.8 103.6
minicomputers but not Power supplies, laboratory type 13 14 eee 601 CO 6.7 To 625 29 @eeee #(0.7 «(0.7 feieeee (0.7 # 0.6 (eens 40 44 79° - 279 26.9 28.6
computers that are Recorders 18 182 egy 6110 «13 16.7 17.9 6.6 GS Ueto 1.8 2.0 Baeemeeoe 1.1 1.3 Geeaeeee 163 173 Ih 299 86.0 92.3
integral parts of process- Signal generators, analog 0.8 08 baeenge 06 O08 93-5099 1.0 13 eee (0.70607 eee «61.8 «1.9 eee 5.8 7.0 6.1 7.0 30.4 34.4
control and like systems Signal generators, synthesizer type 04 06 0.1 0.1 - 0.1 ZA 2.1 1.4 1.8 Seo §=6—0.1 0.1 Oo ur O08 0.9 Boseeus 2.1 2.8 1.5 1.7 10.6 §©13.0
haben ie Spectrum analyzers (audio to 1 GHz) 0.6 O77 © eae 601 (OO Se 6? 05 O77 = eee 61.1 «#3214 We ee «2090610 eee 4.9 5.8 18-20 16:3) (214
electronic Total equipment consumption 570.9 642.4 369.0 409.0 220.3 259.4 3,158.8 3,504.9 1,257.8 1,451.0 844.4 952.3 261.4 300.0 653.0 7648 839.4 875.9 479.2 527.3 3,203.7 3,473.5 5,607.3 6,078.9 17,465.2 19,239.4

*Less than $75,000

® Copyright 1974 Electronics A McGraw-Hill Publication

Mionroe announces the
world’s most powerful
hand-held computer:

More program power.
Over 50,000 program steps on tape plus
internal storage.

More storage power.
Over 4,000 registers on tape plus internal
storage.

More keyboard power.
Over 100 hard-wired functions
directly accessible from the key-
board.

More sub-routine power.
Unlimited with symbolic
addressing.

More metric
conversion power. mie en ee eee
Unlimited Metric/English '
conversions.

More simplicity.

Fully algebraic operation.

More equation power.

Nested parentheses up to 4 levels.

More portable power.
Ready for use with either
rechargeable batteries or AC current.

More available power.

See the 326 or the printing mode! 325 in
your office today. Just call Monroe in any
of 365 cities in the United States and Canada.

BRANCH —~ REMOVE “~ RETURN —“LABEL
Siw cos TAN TO RECT

More calculators forbusiness. “== as

More calculators for engineering. )2..)50202'% "er
More calculators for science. scales ins wns
More desk-top computers. Teves vaprencnentos otk
More service centers. Be a ey alae
MONROE ~aneasal
The Calculator Company. ahs do eee
Is No other company has more. ee

Electronics/December 26, 1974 Circle 85 on reader service card 85

Syntron
Power

Thyristors

Syntron Thyristors (SCRs)
are diffused, three junction,
semiconductor units
designed for medium and
high power solid state
control applications.
Available in the popular
standard JEDEC configura-
tions from 25 amps rms to
850 amps rms with Vso
ratings to 1600 volts and
transient ratings to 2000
volts, these Thyristors exhibit
the same reverse voltage
avalanche characteristics
found in all Syntron silicon
diodes.

In asingle element applica-
tion, they can be used for
direct conversion and con-
tinous control of AC to DC
power requirements or they
can be used as a DC switch
to initiate current flow.
Rigid quality control and
years of field testing have
made Syntron Thyristors
among the most reliable
devices available for solid
state power control.

For detailed information,
contact:

FMC Corporation
Semiconductor Products
Operation

Homer City, Penna. 15748
(412) 479-8011

FINIC Prosicts

MC

Syntron
Semiconductor
Sales
Organization

ARIZONA

Fryco, Engineering Reps.
Scottsdale

(602) 945-3281

CALIFORNIA

Carl E. Holmes Co.
Los Angeles

(213) 256-2255

COLORADO

Gossard & Associates
Denver

(303) 985-0602

FLORIDA

L. Haas Co., Inc.
North Miami Beach
(305) 949-9143
(305) 949-5157

ILLINOIS

Syntron Chicago Sales Co.
Hinsdale

(312) 325-3250

INDIANA

Seawood Sales, Inc.
Montgomery

(513) 793-6702

MARYLAND

Callas Electronics, Inc.
Baltimore

(301) 744-7711
MASSACHUSETTS
Garrettson Co., Inc.
Needham

(617) 449-2640
MICHIGAN

L. H. Dickelman
Detroit

(313) 255-3300
MINNESOTA

oF oe Engineering Inc.

St. Pau

(612) 698-3841

MISSOURI

Harlan J. Weisler & Associates

St. Louis

(314) 428-3934

NEW JERSEY

Syntron Newark Sales Co.
Hasbrouck Heights

(201) 288-1845

NEW YORK

J. Lazor Associates
Penfield

(716) 473-8337

NORTH CAROLINA

Jake Rudisill Associates, Inc.
Charlotte

(704) 377-6901

OHIO

Allen Nace Co., Inc.
Brecksville

(216) 526-4323
PENNSYLVANIA

Ww. Reeves Associates, Inc.

Media
(215) 566-6709

XAS
Palatine Sales, Inc.
Richardson
(214) 231-9489

WASHINGTON
Bergford & Associates

Olympia

(206) 866-2001

WISCONSIN 3
Syntron Semiconductor Sales Co.

Milwaukee
(414) 273-6773

Circle 86 on reader service card

Technical articles

single-chip microprocessor
employs minicomputer word length

By providing 16-bit instructions and addresses and a choice
of 8- or 16-bit words for data processing, a new microprocessor
speeds up operation and simplifies programing for many applications

by George we Reyling Jr, National Semiconductor Corp., Santa Clara, Calif.

CL) Because the development cost of custom large-scale
integrated circuits can only be justified by high product
volumes, LsI-chip designers have turned to developing
standard circuits that can be customized by program-
ing: the read-only memory, the programable logic ar-
ray, and now the programable microprocessor.

The 8-bit word length of the first single-chip micro-
processors does, however, handicap them for the many
applications that require 16-bit words for instructions
and memory addresses. For these jobs, a new single-
chip device, the processing and control element (PACE),
has been developed that provides 16-bit instruction and
address-processing plus a choice of either 8-bit or 16-bit

SYSTEM PROGRAM
AND DATA MEMORY

1,024- aS ht BIT

| corr |
FOUR 256-BY-16 BIT

CONTROL
BUFFER

Rees
7

——

wn
=)
ao
4
<=
2
o
re
—
i=)
c
Ee
=
i=)
ra)

ONE 16-BIT
OR
TWO 8-BIT
PERIPHERALS

data processing. It not only is faster, but it also needs
shorter programs, and hence less memory.

In complex microprocessor applications, the chip
with the 8-bit word length may have to use double-pre-
cision arithmetic to attain the necessary data accuracy.
Worse still, multiple registers are needed to form 16-bit
memory addresses, and multiple accesses to memory
must be made to fetch multibyte instructions—yet fetch-
ing instructions and forming addresses are the oper-
ations most frequently performed by processors.

This adds up to a strong case for optimizing the word
length for a processor’s instruction set and addressing
capabilities rather than the data it is handling. Indeed,

BIDIRECTIONAL
8-BIT
TRISTATE
LATCHES

Few parts. The PACE chip allows a complete microcomputer system to be built with a minimal parts count. This system requires five inte-
grated circuits for the 16-bit central processing unit, clock, and buffering circuits, six ICs for the memories, and two ICs for interfacing.

Electronics/December 26, 1974

87

DATA 1/0

DOO D001 DO2 DO3 DO4 DO5 DOG DO7 DO8 DOS 010 D11 D12 D013 014 D15

YOY AKAN YY YN

INSTRUCTION 1/0 DATA
REGISTER BUFFERS

MICROPROGRAM
_ ADDRESS TEMP REG 1
GENERATION

TEMP REG 2

CONTIN Sy SUMP mICROPROGRAM

“CONDITION }>y : .

8 MULTI REGISTER SaUieEe
PLEXER:

=
m =
~z

oO
>
a
za
=e

JUMP: oe. -MICROPROGRAM
CONDITION 7 STORAGE
INPUTS

2
Eo)
oP)
2

nm

JC13
JC14

JC15
NADS

1/0 ai

CONTROL TEN-WORD

ODS LIFO STACK

CONTROL
LOGIC

EXTEND

BPS

MODE
CONTROL NINIT
NHALT

ALU AND
SHIFTER

cLK CLOCK

GENERATION
NCLK RESULT
BUS

STATUS AND CONTROL-FLAG REGISTER

oe ef int 1
EXIT Fil |BYTED LINK] CRY | OVF
SO RE oat cad a ee

pay i oy OPERAND

INTERRUPT-CONTROL BUS
AAA ( za

Fila; Fis FIZ . FM

Y STACK
CONTROL-FLAG
OUTPUTS

NIR5 NIR4 NIR3 NIR2

INTERRUPT INPUTS

2. On the Inside. Seven 16-bit registers are included in PACE, along with a last-in, first-out stack for additional storage of up to 10 words. The
status-flag register can be loaded from any accumulator. The byte flag is used to specify 8-bit or 16-bit data lengths.

88 Electronics/December 26, 1974

the evolution of minicomputers has seen almost univer-
sal adoption of the 16-bit word length over 8- and 12-bit
designs. PACE has gone one step further by allowing the
data length to be independently optimized to 8 or 16
bits, and this should also extend the usefulness of mi-
croprocessors in such applications as test and medical
instruments, machine-tool controls, navigation systems,
process controls, electronic games, cash registers, and
traffic controls.

Finally, compatibility with a more powerful, micro-
programable microprocessor—National Semicon-
ductor’s IMP-16—provides a means of upgrading the
system and makes the IMP-16’s extensive hardware and
software support available to PACE.

All PACE functions are performed by one chip in a 40-
pin dual in-line package. This chip integrates not only
the functions of the five MOs LSI chips used in the IMP-
16 but also most of the functions previously carried out
by TTL devices. The chip contains status and control cir-
cuitry, conditional-branch sense circuitry, interrupt
logic, and even a portion of the clock generation cir-
cuitry. The two functions required in external circuitry—
a simple, single-phase, true and complement clock input
plus data-buffering—can be provided by two separate
chip types.

By adding a ROM and four RAMs, all with on-chip ad-
dress latches, designers can implement a complete mi-
croprocessor system in about a dozen packages. It will
include 16,384 bits of ROM program storage, 4,096 bits
of read-write data storage, and a 16-bit TTL data-bus in-
terface (Fig. 1).

Basic goals

The PACE microprocessor uses p-channel silicon-gate
metal-oxide-semiconductor technology. This was cho-
sen as the most economical and reliable process capable
of satisfying the two basic design requirements: a typi-
cal instruction execution time of 10 microseconds, and a
density that would allow a complete 16-bit processor to
fit on a chip small enough to be manufacturable in high
volume.

Though n-channel silicon-gate MOS would also have
been fast and dense enough, p-channel was preferred,
because it is today’s most predictable, best-established
process and has been used successfully on other prod-
ucts of similar complexity. Admittedly, commercial
n-channel microprocessors execute instructions in as
little as 2 ps, but its designers believe that PACE’s
throughput is as good or better, thanks to its 16-bit
word length, efficient architecture, and powerful in-
struction set.

The need to maintain high speed while reducing chip
size and power dissipation also affected the circuit de-
sign. For instance, output buffers on the PACE chip were
designed to drive current-sense amplifiers (with Tri-
State capability) which further buffer the signals. How-
ever, the current-sense amplifiers do not raise the pack-
age count higher than those in other microprocessor sys-
tems, which usually require the addition of TTL buffers
to drive the data bus. On-chip pullup resistors provide
TTL-compatible inputs, and the use of dynamic logic
also keeps power dissipation down.

Electronics/December 26, 1974

CLOCK

NADS

ADDRESS
DATA

1DS/ODS

QUTPUT

EXTEND

OPTIONAL EXTEND-
n CLOCK CYCLES

3. I/O controls. During data input and output, the address data
strobe (NADS) occurs in the middle of the address-data time period.
The EXTEND input allows the |/O cycle time to be extended.

A built-in microprogram controls the PACE micro-
processor as it repeatedly fetches instructions from the
external program store and executes the corresponding
operations. The microprogram is stored in a program-
able logic array that is not accessible to the user.

For internal data storage, PACE has seven 16-bit regis-
ters, four of which—accumulators ACO to AC3—are di-
rectly available to the programer for data storage and
address formulation (Fig. 2). ACO is the principal work-
ing register, AC] is the secondary working register, and
AC2 and AC3 are page pointers or auxiliary data regis-
ters. The other three registers—one program counter
and two temporary registers—are used by the control
section to carry out the PACE instruction set.

Additional data storage for up to 10 words is pro-
vided by a last-in, first-out (or push-pull) stack not pre-
viously available in many single-chip microprocessors.
This stack primarily stores the contents of the program
counter during subroutine execution and interrupt ser-
vicing, but it may also be used for storing status infor-
mation or data.

In some simple applications, like controllers for pe-
ripheral devices, only one word of data is handled at a
time, and here the stack, with four additional accumula-
tors, may provide enough storage so that expensive
read-write memories would not be required. For more
complex applications, external read-write memory may
be used as a stack extension. In such cases, the stack-full
and stack-empty interrupts cause execution of a simple
stack service routine.

A three-transistor dynamic random-access-memory
cell is used in the registers and stack. The RAM is re-
freshed by internal logic in a manner that is completely
transparent to the user.

Data handling

The arithmetic and logic unit (ALU) provides the
data-manipulation capability basic to every processor.
The operations performed by the ALU include AND, OR,
xOR, complement, shift left, shift right, mask byte and
sign extend. PACE can add four-digit-per-word binary-

89

PACE INSTRUCTION LIST

BRANCH INSTRUCTIONS

BOC
JMP
JMP@
JSR
JSR@
RTS
RTI

Branch on condition

Jump

Jump indirect

Jump to subroutine

Jump to subroutine indirect
Return from subroutine
Return from interrupt

SKIP INSTRUCTIONS

SKNE Skip if not equal

SKG Skip if greater

SKAZ Skip if and is zero

ISZ Increment and skip if zero
DSZ Decrement and skip if zero

AISZ Add immediate, skip if zero

MEMORY DATA TRANSFER INSTRUCTIONS

LD Load

LD@ Load indirect

ST Store

ST@ Store indirect

LSEX Load with sign extended

MEMORY DATA OPERATE INSTRUCTIONS

AND And

OR Or

ADD Add

SUBB Subtract with borrow
DECA Decimal add

coded-decimal (BCD) data, as well as straight binary
data, thus eliminating the program-storage and execu-
tion time usually required for BCD-to-binary conver-
sions. This is useful in such BCD-oriented applications as
display controllers, electronic cash registers, billing sys-
tems, accounting machines, navigation aids, and indus-
trial controllers and test systems.

The programer, using a status flag, sets the ALU to op-
erate on either 8- or 16-bit data. This option allows
character-oriented and other 8-bit applications to be ex-
ecuted using an 8-bit peripheral data bus and read-
write memory, while address formation and instruction
storage can be implemented in 16 bits.

Data transfers

All input/output transactions consist of an address-
output interval (in which the address specifies an exter-
nal memory location or peripheral device) followed by
a data-transfer interval. If 8-bit data is being trans-
ferred, the unused bits can be treated as “don’t care”
bits by the hardware.

Address and data transfers between PACE and exter-
nal memories or peripheral devices take place over 16
data lines (Fig. 2) and are synchronized by four 1/0 con-
trol signals: NADS (address data strobe), IDs (input data
strobe), ODS (output data strobe), and EXTEND (Fig. 3).

The NADS pulse occurs in the center of the address-
data time period and may be used to strobe the address
into an address latch on the external ROM or RAM.

90

REGISTER DATA TRANSFER INSTRUCTIONS

Ll Load immediate

RCPY Register copy

RXCH Register exchange

XCHRS Exchange register and stack
CFR Copy flags into register
CRF Copy register into flags
PUSH Push register onto stack
PULL Pull stack into register
PUSHF Push flags onto stack
PULLF Pull stack into flags

REGISTER DATA OPERATE INSTRUCTIONS

RADD
RADC
RAND
RXOR
CAI

Register add

Register add with carry

Register and

Register exclusive-OR
Complement and add immediate

SHIFT AND ROTATE INSTRUCTIONS

SHL Shift left
SHR Shift right
ROL Rotate left
ROR Rotate right

MISCELLANEOUS INSTRUCTIONS

HALT Halt
SFLG Set flag
PFLG Pulse flag

(Such memories are commercially available with ad-
dress latches on the chip.) The IDs and ODs indicate the
type of data transfer and may be used to enable Tri-
State 1/0 buffers and to gate data into registers or
memories. The EXTEND input allows the 1/0 cycle time
to be extended by multiples of the clock cycle and thus
adapted to various memory and peripheral devices or to
direct-memory-access/bus operation.

The EXTEND input and all other signal inputs to PACE
are designed to accept signals that are asynchronous
with respect to the clock signal. Clocks for the dynamic
logic are derived internally from single-phase true and
complement clock inputs. These inputs are divided by
the internal circuitry into the eight clock phases that
constitute a microinstruction cycle.

Data transfers occur at two times: during each access
to an instruction (usually contained in a ROM) and dur-
ing the access to data (usually contained in a RAM)
called for by a memory-reference instruction. (Memory-
reference instructions in PACE could perhaps more
properly be called 1/0-reference instructions, since the
same instructions control all data transfers, whether
with memory, peripheral devices, or a central proces-
sor’s data bus.)

The same buses are used for memory and peripher-
als, saving system hardware. This unified-bus architect-
ure contrasts with that of many other microprocessors
and minicomputers, in which one instruction type (1/0
class) communicates with peripheral devices and an-

Electronics/December 26, 1974

Memory addressing in PACE

Part of the PACE microprocessor’s powerful instruction
set is a flexible method of addressing the memory. This
method makes it possible to reference three sequences
of 256 words located anywhere in the 65,536-word
memory, as well as another 256 words in fixed positions.

The fixed words from what is called a ‘‘base’’ page,
and the others form three ‘‘floating’’ pages. The mode of
addressing is specified by the 2-bit XR field (bits 8 and 9)
of the 16-bit instruction, as shown in the figure.

When the XR field is 00, it specifies base-page ad-
dressing. The base page may consist of either the first
256 words in the memory, or the first 128 plus last 128
words. The base-page-select (BPS) signal input decides
which option will be used.

To address the first 256 words of memory (locations
0-255), BPS is set to 0, and the 16-bit memory address is
formed by setting bits 8 through 15 to zero and by using
bits O through 7 to specify one of 256 locations.

lf BPS is 1, the 16-bit memory address is formed by
setting bits 8 through 15 equal to bit 7 and by using 0
through 6 to locate the first 128 words of the memory
(when bit 7 is 0) and the last 128 words (when bit 7 is 1).
This technique is useful for splitting the base page be-
tween read-write and read-only memories or between
memory and peripheral devices, so convenient base-
page addressing can access data or peripherals.

When the XR field is 01, it specifies that addressing be
relative to the program counter (PC). In this mode, the
memory address is formed by adding the contents of the
program counter to the value of bits 0 through 7, treated
as a two’s complement number with sign. That is, the bits

other instruction type (memory-reference class) commu-
nicates with memories. The advantage of the PACE ap-
proach is that a wider variety of instructions—in fact,
the entire memory-reference class—is available for com-
municating with peripherals. For example, the DSz
(decrement and skip if zero) instruction can be used to
decrement a peripheral-device register, or the SKAZ
(skip if AND is zero) instruction can be used to test the
register’s contents. The LD (load) and ST (store) instruc-
tion handle simple data transfers.

Flags and jumps

The PACE flag outputs and jump commands give it
flexibility in controlling peripherals. They can be used
for many simple control functions, such as start reader
and rewind in a tape controller.

The flag and jump conditions also can be used to-
gether as a serial 1/0 port, eliminating the hardware that
would otherwise be required to interface to the data bus
and to decode the device address. The jump condition
inputs serve as data-sense inputs, for one bit of data,
since their state can be determined by instructions in
the program. A flag, on the other hand, can be set and
cleared and serve as an output for one bit. For example,
for a teletypewriter, a flag output becomes a serial bit-
stream output, and the jump a serial bit-stream input.

All status and control bits for PACE are contained in a
single status-flag register (Fig. 2), the contents of which
may be loaded from or into any accumulator on the

Electronics/December 26, 1974

0 to 7 are interpreted as a 16-bit value with bits 8 through
15 set equal to bit 7. This allows numbers from -128
through +127 to be represented. Bits 0 to 7 are called
displacement bits, since they can represent a range of
words around a center position.

When the XR field is 10 or 11, addressing is relative to
an index register, and any memory location within the ex-
ternal 65,536-word address space may be referenced.
As before, the displacement field is interpreted as a
signed value ranging from -128 through +127. The
memory address is then formed by adding the displace-
ment bits to the contents of either accumulator AC 2
(when XR = 10) or accumulator AC3 (when XR = 11).
This type of addressing is desirable for those applications
that require addresses to be computed at execution time,
since addresses can not be modified when a ROM is
serving for program storage (as is usually the case with
microprocessors as opposed to minicomputers).

16 BITS

XR FIELD ADDRESSING MODE

00 Base page

EFFECTIVE ADDRESS

EA = disp

EA = disp + (PC)
EA = disp + (AC2)
EA = disp + (AC3)

01 Program-counter relative
10 AC2 relative (indexed)
11 AC3 relative (indexed)

stack. This makes it convenient to test, store, and even—
where a specific group of bits are of interest—to mask
status. In addition, a number of status bits may be
tested directly by the conditional-branch instruction,
and any bit may be individually set or reset.

The bits in the 16-bit status-flag register serve various
functions:
= The carry flag is set to the state of the carry output
that results from binary and BCD arithmetic instructions
and can serve as a carry input for some of these instruc-
tions.
= The overflow flag is set if an arithmetic overflow re-
sults from a binary-arithmetic instruction.
= The link flag serves as a 1-bit extension for certain
shift and rotate instructions.
= The byte flag is uniquely important, since it is used to
specify an 8-bit data length for data-processing instruc-
tion while arithmetic operations for address formation
remain at the 16-bit data length. (In the 8-bit data
mode, modifications of the carry, overflow, and link
flags are based on the 8 least-significant data bits only).
= Six status flags enable the interrupt request lines.
= Four flags (bits 11-14) can be assigned functions by
the programer. These flags drive output pins and may
be used as direct controls for external system functions
or as software-status flags.
= Bits 0 and 15 of the status register are not intended
for use and always appear as a logic 1.

In the past, microprocessors’ interrupt features have

91

READER

STATUS INTERNAL-

DATA BUS

ADDRESS REGISTER

SYSTEM
DATA BUS

CONTROL
PROCESSOR

DATA BUFFERS
(16)

MISCELLANEOUS
CONTROL

BUS-CONTROL SIGNALS

(12)

CONTROLLER
STATUS

SYSTEM
MEMORY

4. Card-reader controller. One application of PACE is in a card-reader controller, which requires about 20 IC packages. A central processor
commands the controller to complete various operations, and the controller generates timing and control signals for the card reader.

been inadequate for many applications and have also
required excessive hardware and software. Yet inter-
rupts are essential in those applications where alarm
conditions or transient conditions must be serviced im-
mediately, as in controls for automobiles, chemical pro-
cesses, or machine tools. They are also useful in many
other systems to eliminate the program overhead re-
quired to scan asynchronous system inputs, as in a con-
troller for multiple terminals or for an intersection traf-
fic light.

Six interrupt levels

The PACE microprocessor, however, provides a six-
level, priority-interrupt structure. As a result, the inter-
rupting device’s level is automatically identified, and all
devices on an interrupt level can be enabled or disabled
as a group, independently of other interrupt levels. An
individual interrupt-enable is provided in the status reg-
ister for each level, and a master interrupt-enable (IEN)
is provided for all five lower-priority levels as a group.
Negative-true interrupt request inputs allow several in-
terrupts to be “wire-ORed” on each input.

The PACE interrupt system can save considerable
hardware and software in applications that tend to need
several interrupts. The on-chip priority logic and sub-
sequent “vectored” (or immediate) branch to the inter-
rupt routine can eliminate many of the logic circuits
that are often required with other microprocessors. For
example, PACE can internally resolve priority questions
and immediately put an address vector onto the data
bus. The interrupt-servicing capability in addition saves
the program-storage-and-execution time that would
otherwise be required to access the appropriate inter-
rupt-service routine.

The PACE microprocessor’s 337 individual instruc-
tions are a general-purpose mix of 45 types of instruc-

92

tions. The mix is powerful enough to allow program-
coding to be considerably more efficient than with most
microprocessors, and it also compares favorably with
many minicomputers.

The memory-reference instructions, for example, use
a flexible memory-address scheme to provide one fixed,
or “base,” page of 256 words in the external memory,
and three “floating” pages, which allow the user to pick
out 256 words anywhere in the memory. The floating
pages can be selected according to the contents of the
program counter or either of the two accumulators (see
“Memory addressing in PACE”).

Instruction types

Among the types of instruction used in PACE are:
= Branch instructions, which allow transfer of control to
anywhere in the 16-bit addressing space.
# Conditional branches, which allow testing of any one
of 16 conditions, including status flags, the contents of
the principal working register (ACO), and user inputs to
the chip.
= Skip instructions, which provide additional testing ca-
pability and comparisons of memory without altering
data.
= Memory-data-transfer instructions, for transferring
data between the accumulators and either memory or
peripheral devices.
= Load-with-sign-extended instructions, which convert
8-bit, two’s-complement data to 16-bit data, allowing
16-bit address modification when the 8-bit data length
has been selected.
= Memory-data-operate instructions, for operations be-
tween the principal working register (ACO) and memory
or peripheral data. They include both binary and BCD
arithmetic instructions (no correction required).
= Register-data-transfer instructions, which provide a

Electronics/December 26, 1974

BUFFER
E 256-BY-4-BIT s

BUFFER

CONTROL

RAM

1,024-BY-16-BIT
ROM

KEYBOARD
INTERFACE

HIGH-
CURRENT
DRIVERS

PRINT
CONTROL

DISPLAY
DRIVE

PRINT

REGISTER PRINTER

DISPLAY

KEYBOARD

5. Cash register. An electronic cash register using PACE can perform such functions as tax compuiations and multiple-item pricing. The en-
tire system has been built with 35 IC packages, eight of which comprise the CPU and the memory.

complete set of transfer possibilities between the accu-
mulators, flag register, and stack, and which include the
capability to load immediate data.

= Register-data-operate instructions, for logical and
arithmetic operations between any two accumulators.
They may be used to modify addresses and data and to
reduce the number of time-consuming memory refer-
ences in a program.

® Shift-and-rotate instructions, which allow eight dif-
ferent operations that are useful for multiply, divide,
bit-scanning, and serial input-output operations.

= Miscellaneous instructions, including the capability
to set or reset any of the 16 bits of the status-flag register
individually

Two applications

A card-reader controller and an electronic cash regis-
ter illustrate the use of the PACE microprocessor.

The card-reader controller (CRC) is designed to inter-
face with a system that is under the control of a central
processor and has a direct memory-access channel (Fig.
4). The central processor issues commands to the CRC
over a 16-bit multiplexed data bus. The CRC then re-
sponds to these commands by generating appropriate
timing and control signals to the card reader and by
monitoring the card reader’s data and status outputs.
Data read from the card is then transferred directly to
the system memory over the data bus, and the CRC gen-
erates an interrupt to the central processor to signal
completion of the order or the occurrence of an error
condition.

The CRC has two modes of operation. In the boot-
strap mode, a control-panel switch causes one card to be
read and its data deposited in packed form in the first
40 locations of system memory. In the normal mode, the
CRC also transfers data directly to memory, but does so

Electronics/December 26, 1974

under control of the central processor.

Data output from the PACE chip is buffered with
sense amplifiers, which drive the 1,024-by-16-bit ROM
chip (with internal address latch) and the Tri-State sys-
tem data-bus buffers for time-multiplexed address and
data output. Input commands to the CRC are received in
the 4-bit command register, while the address register
stores those system-memory starting addresses specified
by the read commands.

The PACE priority-interrupt inputs are very useful in
this application. They monitor the index pulses and sig-
nals for motion check, hopper check, and read error.
The jump-condition inputs monitor less critical signals,
such as reader-ready. Control-flag outputs drive the
reader’s card-pick input and gate data from the register
onto the internal data bus.

The total controller function, including memory and
I/O, requires about 20 packages. This is a quarter the
number required for a TTL MSI version (which also does
not include character conversion). The PACE design,
with its programable feature, also allows easy modi-
fications for changes in command requirements or for a
variety of card readers.

The electronic cash register (Fig. 5) consists of the
CPU, memory, a 6-digit display, and 18-column printer,
and a keyboard. In addition to providing all the func-
tions of a mechanical cash-register, the system performs
automatic tax computations and multiple-item pricing.
The 256-by-4-bit RAM with on-chip address latches pro-
vides the programer with 32 8-digit registers to store to-
tals, calculate taxes, and so on.

The CPU and memory section is implemented with
only eight packages, while the entire system requires
approximately 35 packages. Again, effective use is made
of the interrupts, jump conditions, and flags to reduce
hardware and software requirements. Oo

93

94

Now Hewlett-Packard
next terminal an open

Plug-in character sets.
The 2640A can store four 128
character sets concurrently.
Adjacent characters on the
display can be selected from
any set. There’s already an
optional math character set
and a line drawing set in
addition to full upper/lower
case Roman set.

Smart memory

(with 4K RAM’s).

Efficient storage with our
Dynamic Memory Allocator
assures maximum utilization,
Store as many as 50 short
lines with the standard 1024
byte memory or over 3 full
pages with the maximum
8K memory.

Pop-in, pop-out modularity.
Flip a couple of latches

and you access every
component. Want to add
features? Plug them in.
New state-of-the-art
options? Plug them in.
Need a repair? Pop out
the old. Plug in the new.

Computer-born micro-
processor technology
controls the show.

An on-board micro-
processor supervises
memory allocation,
data communication,
keyboard scanning
and display control.

Electronics/December 26, 1974

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Why wait on us? Self-test.
Press the TEST key and the
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and gives you a go/no-go
indication. Or load our
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- your computer for complete,
element-by-element check
out of the entire unit.

Characters or blocks.
You choose.

Operate character-by-
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Electronics/December 26, 1974 Circle 95 on reader service card

Precise. Crisp, with 9 x 15 dot

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95

Designer’s casebook

Low-speed counter uses
low-priced calculator chip

by Dennis J. Flora

Stevens Institute of Technology, Hoboken, N. J.

A totalizing counter that runs at less than 40 hertz
makes novel use of an inexpensive calculator IC, one of
several now available. The Ic in the illustrated counter
is the MM 5736, a six-digit calculator chip that can di-
rectly drive the segments of small common-cathode
light-emitting-diode displays. Because of this capability,
the single IC replaces many discrete counter and
decoder ICs; only a few extra logic chips are required.
The MM 5736 has seven segment outputs, six digit
outputs, and three keyboard inputs. In normal usage,
the segment outputs drive the individual segments of all
digits in a conventional display. The digit outputs drive
the digits of the display, scanning rapidly from one to
the next in synchronism with the segment outputs so
that individual numerals are illuminated. These digit
outputs also scan the keyboard. If any key is depressed,
a connection is made from one digit output to one of
the three keyboard inputs, uniquely identifying that
key. The logic circuits in the chip respond to that input
to display a digit or to begin an arithmetic operation.
The logic that is added in lieu of a keyboard includes
three 555 timers, four two-input NAND gates, four in-
verters, and a few discrete components. The calculator

chip and this logic together count events as signaled by
an external count pulse, incrementing the display by 1,
2, or any integer up to 9.

The negative-going leading edge of each count pulse
triggers a 555 timer connected as a monostable multi-
vibrator, generating a pulse about 15 milliseconds long.
This is long enough for the six digit outputs of the chip
to complete many full scans, connecting what looks to
the calculator like a key depression to one of the key-
board inputs. (In normal operation, a key depression is
usually much longer than 15 ms because of human re-
action time, and the corresponding digit entry is made
in the calculator chip many times.) The “key” in this
case is a hard-wired connection from one of the digit
outputs to a NAND gate-inverter combination, and an-
other is a hard-wired connection from the inverter to
one of the keyboard inputs, in accordance with the
table. By this means, the counting increment is entered
into the calculator.

The end of the 15-ms pulse triggers a second timer
that forces a delay during which the calculator can be-
come stable after receiving the “key depression.” (In
normal operation, this delay is created as the user
moves a finger from one key to another.) At the end of
this delay, the third timer is triggered to produce a pulse
that gates the digit output d, into the keyboard input ks
to enter what the calculator sees as an instruction to
add. Thus, for every incoming count pulse, the calcu-
lator chip adds the wired-in increment to the previous
total and displays the result.

Normally, to clear this calculator, the clear button on
the keyboard is pressed twice. To provide time to clear

NSN 66 OR EQUIVALENT
es ae Sa

SEGMENT OUTPUTS

KEYBOARD
INPUTS

x

<15 ms *>60 ms

4049 1N914

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|
4

SUBSTITUTE FOR BIDIRECTIONAL COUNT
&

PincrewenT | [|
ky do

CONDON P WH —

Calculator counter. Logic blocks take the place of a keyboard to provide appropriate signals for the single-chip calculator, MM 5736, to
serve as a simple counter. It costs less than the collection of discrete devices that otherwise would be required.

96

Electronics/December 26, 1974

the counter, the reset pulse must be held low for at least
60 ms. During that time, an astable multivibrator as-
sembled from another NAND gate, an inverter, a re-
sistor, and a capacitor, provides at least two connections
of digit output d; to keyboard input k3. Since this is the
same input used by the “add” pseudo-instruction, two
diodes create the equivalent of an OR gate in front of ks.

The counter can be expanded to count either up or
down by removing the inverter following NAND gate 3
and inserting, before the gate, two three-input NANDs,

Modified window comparator
compensates for temperature

By C. E. Musser

General Electric Co., Binghamton, N.Y.

A window comparator circuit, which detects signal volt-
ages at two different levels by comparing them to fixed
references, can be modified to compensate for tempera-
ture variations that otherwise can affect the trip points
that define the window.

In the circuit’s simplest configuration (Fig. 1), two
voltage-reference dividers are connected to the inputs of
an operational amplifier. Both dividers have the same
excitation polarity, but the non-inverting input refer-
ence must be more positive than the inverting. Choos-
ing the fractional resistance values establishes this in-
equality and defines the window’s width.

An input signal is applied between diodes D, and D2
from a low-impedance source, such as another op amp.
For all signals that are at least one diode voltage drop
more negative than the inverting input reference, diode
Dz is back-biased and not conducting, and the op amp
is in negative saturation.

When the input signal is more than one diode drop
more positive than the junction of the voltage divider at
the inverting input, diode D, turns off and De turns on.

as shown in the inset of the diagram. This connects ei-
ther d4 to ks to count up, as in the main diagram, or d3
to ks to count down, controlled by a single additional
logic input that specifies the direction of counting. This
input has to be inverted to provide the proper level at
both the three-input gates; the removed inverter can be
used for this function.

The whole counter can be built for $15 to $20, an eco-
nomical substitute for the six discrete counters and six
decoder/ drivers that would otherwise be required. [J

When the non-inverting op amp input becomes slightly
more positive than the inverting input, the amplifier
switches to positive saturation. In Fig. 2 this level is
called Ejn1.

A still larger positive excursion of the signal, to Eine
in Fig. 2, pulls the inverting input above the non-invert-
ing one, making the op amp switch back again to nega-
tive saturation.

The two voltage references can be made negative by
reversing the polarity of the excitation voltages and the
input diodes. Doing this also reverses output polarity—it
effectively turns Fig. 2 upside down. The reference volt-

2. Switching points. Op amp output is positive whenever input lies
between Ejn1 and Ejn2, negative for other levels.

1. Plain window. Operational amplifier, otherwise in positive satura-
tion, is in negative saturation whenever input signal is more than 0.6
volt below negative reference or above positive reference.

Electronics/December 26, 1974

3. Modified window. Because temperature changes can vary diode
characteristics and change trip points, extra diodes in dividers vary
in the same way and minimize the extent of the change.

97

The choice is yours...

for image storage

e Air traffic control e Harbour and river traffic control e Remote display

e Image offset and Zoom e Multisensor displays e TV image freeze

e Banking, luggage check e Scan conversion (PPI, random, TV standards)
e Signals handling e Low light level imaging. Integration.

We offer the widest choice of storage tubes to solve your problems: permanent recording or progressive
erasure, single or dual-gun for sequential or simultaneous write and read-out,
full grey scale capability, rugged, compact and high resolution types.

WN

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Germany - THOMSON-CSF Elektronenrohren GmbH / Am Leonhardsbrunn 10 / 6 FRANKFURT/MAIN / Tel. (0611) 70 20 99

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United Kingdom - THOMSON-CSF Electronic Tubes Ltd / Bilton House / Uxbridge Road / Ealing / LONDON W 5 2TT / Tel. (01) 579 55 11/ Telex 26 659

98 Circle 98 on reader service card Electronics/December 26, 1974

ages for this circuit are

Eint = V\(R/3)/(R+R/3)] - Va=(V/4) - Va
Eing = Vi(R/2)/(R + R/2)| + Va=(V/3) + Va

where Vj is the diode voltage drop.

Temperature changes cause diode variation that af-
fect the trip points. Additional diodes in the dividers
(Fig. 3) vary in the same way as the input diodes, and
thus partially compensate for such changes. The resistor
R, should be chosen so that point A is slightly negative,
just enough to bias the diode into continuous conduc-

tion. For the modified circuit the reference voltages are

Eini = n{(V - Va)(R/3)/(R + R/3)] + Vad - Va
= (V-Va)/4

Eing = n[(V + Va)(R/2)/(R + R/2)]- Vad + Va
= (V+V,)/3

Both of these circuit versions have been tested at
room temperature using +1% metal-film resistors,
1N4148 diodes, and 741 op amps. Assuming Vq to be
0.6 volts, the measured trip points agreed well with the
calculated values. Oo

Timer pulse widths range
from seconds to hours

by Ken Erickson
Interstate Electronics Corp., Anaheim, Calif.

A timer with output durations ranging from a few sec-
onds to more than 100 hours can be built around a pla-
ting cell, thus avoiding the special low-leakage compo-
nents or high resistances that such timers often require.

When the current direction in a plating cell is from
reservoir electrode to working electrode, silver is plated
onto the working electrode in an amount proportional
to the charge passed through the cell. Conversely, when
the current direction is from working electrode to reser-
voir electrode, silver is removed from the working elec-
trode. As long as the electrode is plated, the impedance
of the cell is only a few kilohms; but after all the plating
is removed from the anode, the impedance across the
cell increases to several megohms. When this happens,
transistor Q; is turned on; otherwise, when the cell is
plated, Q: is cut off.

The plating charge is the charge on capacitor C.
When the input and output have both been low for a
long time, C has charged fully to about 3.6 volts, and at
1,000 microfarads as shown, it holds 3.6 x 10-° cou-
lomb. Then, when the external input to gate Gi goes
high, its output drops to ground, and C discharges

3

Vis

1,000 uF 1 k&
Ad 2N2484

%7402

WORKING ELECTRODE
RESERVOIR ELECTRODE

Electronics/December 26, 1974

through the plating cell. The current, Ia, with the refer-
ence shown, is negative, causing the cell to be plated.
The current’s magnitude is limited by resistor Ri; the
time constant for the values shown is about | second.
Plating the cell drops the voltage at the base of Qi be-
low its threshold, thus turning Qi off and Qe on. The
collector of Qz drops almost to ground; this level is in-
verted by gate Go, and the output goes high. This out-
put feeds back to gate G; to make the circuit’s operation
independent of the input line once the timing cycle has
begun.

The deplating current flows continuously through Ro;
it is 1 microampere for the value of Re shown. When
deplating is nearly completed, the cell’s impedance be-
gins increasing gradually, Q; turns back on, the timer
output goes low, and if the timer input is low, capacitor
C charges again.

The charge transferred during either plating or de-
plating is represented by

Q=CV=[hT
From this relationship, the time to transfer this charge is
T = CV/Ia

For a 1,000-microfarad capacitor, the time to deplate
the cell is 3,600 seconds—a full hour. Other times can be
obtained by using different values for the capacitor C or
the resistor Ro. oO

Designer's casebook is a regular feature in Electronics. We invite readers to submit original
and unpublished circuit ideas and solutions to design problems. Explain briefly but thor-
oughly the circuit's operating principle and purpose. We'll pay $50 for each item published.

NOTE: P, IS PLESSEY ELECTRO-PRODUCTS E-CELL 560-0002

Wide range. Timer output can be as short as a few seconds or as
long as many hours, by choice of RC time constant. Pulse width is
not affected even if leaky capacitor is used, because circuit's oper-
ation is based on deposition and removal of silver in plating cell P4.

99

Digital introduces
a pair of minis for the
price of micros.

S/A-h00with § 8/A-200with
8K core.$1845. 4K MOS.$1317

spate
“guagl
genid ete

Two new small computers.

Two new bottom-busting
Prices.

The 8/A, with central proc-
essor, 4K of MOS (RAM) mem-
ory, chassis, power supply,
operator’s console, and battery
backup. Just $1317 in quantity 50.

e 8/A-400, with central
processor, 8K of core memory,
chassis, power supply, and
operator's console. Only $1845
in quantity 50.

Now take a look at the

melee an in the table below.

nd while you’re at it, take a
close look at the competition’s
prices.

What you learn may sur-
prise you.

But price is only half the
story.
As part of the largest com-
puter family in the world (over
25,000 PDP-8’s installed), both
these new computers are backed
by 10 years of PDP-8 software
development.

Dozens of PDP-8 periph-
erals. And a complete range of
interfaces.

We've become the world’s
leading supplier of small com-
puters by helping you make the
most of computers.

Now prices are going to

PDP-8/A
LSI2/10 | $1050 $2135 | $2459 $3491

keep us there.

For more information on
these new computers, write
Digital Equipment Corporation,
Maynard, MA 01754.

(617) 897-5111. European head-
quarters: 81 route de I'Aire,

1211 Geneva 26. Tel: 42 79 50.
Digital Equipment of Canada,
Ltd., P.O. Box 11500, Ottawa,
Ontario K2H 8K8. (613) 592-5111.

Data General Nova 2/4 Not $2112 $2432 $3456
Available | (CORE)

General Automation

LSI 12/16

$ 635
(Qty. 100)

$2000
(Qty. 100)|(Qty. 100) (Qty. 100)
(RAM)

$3100

National Semiconductor | IMP-16L $ 713 $2660 $3510 $5210
(RAM) (RAM)

Based upon current published prices for discount level of 50 units.
Prices apply to U.S.A. and Canada only.

Electronics/December 26, 1974

Circle 101 onreader service card

101

Engineer’s notebook

Counter keeps track
of microprocessor interrupts

by Douglas M. Risch

Woodward Governor Co., Fort Collins, Colo.

A counter for keeping track of the number of times a
microprocessor executes its interrupt-enable and inter-
rupt-disable instructions permits the use of nested inter-
rupts. With nesting, a routine that interrupts another
program can itself be interrupted by a subroutine,
which may be subject to still another interrupt, and so
on to almost any desired depth. By this means, the
power of the microprocessor to implement complex
logic designs can be greatly extended.

A single microprocessor can often be assigned several
related tasks, which it executes in rotation, either with a
fixed amount of time devoted to each task, or to inter-
rupt on a demand basis. A program yields when the in-
terrupting program requires service.

However some programs may contain segments that
must not be interrupted. For instance, if a routine that
fetches information from a multiplexed analog interface
(Fig. 1) is interrupted after the input channel is selected,
but before that channel’s signal moves to the analog-to-
digital converter, erroneous information could be trans-

OUTPUT REGISTER

8
HIGH-ORDER
BITS

LOGIC

DATA BUS

STEERING

ANALOG
OUTPUT

16-BIT
DIGITAL-

CONVERTER

8
LOW-ORDER
BITS

STEERING
LOGIC

1. Multiple precision. When desired precision requires more than
one word, all bits must be loaded before an interrupt can be toler-
ated. This prevents an incorrect level from appearing at the output.

INTERRUPT
COMMANDS

REQUEST
ENABLE

INTERRUPT

(TO MICRO-
PROCESSOR)

EXECUTE

mitted. Or, when a multiple precision operation is
under way (Fig. 2), an interrupt after the first word is
loaded into the register, but before the second, may
generate an incorrect output for a period much longer
than normal in this period.

These examples show why the newer microprocessors
include interrupt-enable and interrupt-disable instruc-
tions with their interrupt capabilities. Simpler micro-
processors can implement these instructions with hard-
ware (Fig. 3). But a simple enable/disable capability
would be insufficient when a program that would dis-
able the interrupt called a subroutine that would also
disable the interrupt. The subroutine, when finished,
would enable the interrupt before the program could
tolerate enablement.

The solution is to remember how may interrupt-
disable instructions were given and to prevent inter-
rupts until each disable instruction has been matched
with an enable instruction. A hardware implementation
(Fig. 4) is just a modification of the simple enable/
disable logic, including an up/down counter to remem-
ber the number of disable signals. A corollary software
solution is also possible; it merely implements the
up/down counter in a memory location instead of in a
separate register.

Interrupt-disable commands can be nested as deeply
as 2" - 2 for the hardware implementation, using an
n-stage counter, or 2" - | for the software implementa-
tion, where n is the number of bits in a word. oO

INTERRUPT
COMMANDS

INTERRUPT

(TO MICRO-
PROCESSOR)

OUTPUT CARRY IS
1 WHEN COUNTER
COHN LH coNTAINS 0 OR 15
(asians: UP/DOWN
CONTROL
1= UP

EXECUTE dich

3. Counter for nesting. Successive disable and enable instructions

step the counter respectively up and down. Only when enables have
canceled previous disables can interrupts pass.

INTERRUPT
ENABLE
ROUTINE

INTERRUPT
DISABLE
ROUTINE

INT =

INT +1
DISABLE
INTERRUPT

RETURN RETURN

ENABLE
INTERRUPT

2. Interrupt gate. An enable instruction, stored in the flip-flop at exe-
cution time, permits subsequent interrupts to pass. A disable resets
the flip-flop and blocks following interrupts.

4. Software counter. These routines count the enables and disables
as does the counter in Fig. 3, but the count is stored in a memory lo-
cation called INT, rather than in a separate register.

102 Electronics/December 26, 1974

Three integrated circuits plus a few discrete components

Simple step-fu nection generator will generate step functions that are useful, for example,

in the life testing or unattended functional checking of

aids in testing instruments potentiometric recorders, controllers, and transmitters.

The values of individual components in the circuitry
by Michael M. Lacefield can be varied to provide different step timings, output
Honeywell Inc., New Orleans, La. amplitudes, and step-to-step ratios.

With the component values shown in Fig. 1, the cir-

SN7490 SN7441
DECADE BCD/
COUNTER 9 DECIMAL
DECODER/
BCD DRIVER
14 OUTPUT

1

10

1. Function generator. Successively lower resistances at the decoder outputs create a stairstep function for testing instruments of various
kinds. A different sequence of resistances, or a set of variable resistors, generates different kinds of step functions.

100 mv ——

16s TO 60 MIN

—— SETPOINT

2. Variety. The circuit of Fig. 1 generates many waveshapes, variants of the basic stairstep waveform (a), which ranges from 5 to 120 milli-
volts and lasts anywhere from 16 seconds to 60 minutes. Increasing and decreasing steps (b) test electrical and mechanical balancing func-
tions. Ever-increasing step amplitudes, either with a center zero (c), or all positive (d), test the response to such steps. Ordinary square
waves of large (e) and small (f) amplitudes check positive and negative excursions from setpoints, large-scale process-variable changes, and
mechanical drive assemblies. Waveshapes (c), (d), and (f) also check for response to full-scale retrace of function.

Electronics/December 26, 1974 103

Ee SEMTECH NEWS et

Published from time to time by SEMTECH CORPORATION »* 652 Mitchell Road, Newbury Park, California 91320 / Phone: (805) 498-2111

NEW MINI-METOXILITE
SILICON RECTIFIERS

st

or

Low-Current
Mini-Metoxilite

New low current, Mini-Metoxilite silicon
rectifiers are ideally suited for small
modular electronic packaging.

Through the application of new design and
manufacturing techniques Semtech has
produced these Mini-Metoxilite devices to
guarantee the ultimate in hermanticity
and ruggedness.

The metal oxides, which form the outer case,
are fused directly to the high temperature
metallurgically bonded assembly.

These devices meet or exceed environmental
requirements of current military and space
program specifications.

Devices maximum dimensions are:
body — .165” long by .070” in diameter;
leads — 1.25” long by .021” in diameter.

GENERAL PURPOSE

(Trr) 2uS (Max.)

Reverse Voltage: 200, 400, 600, 800 & 1000V.

Forward Current: 0.5A @ 55°C.

Reverse Current (Max.): 100nA @ 25°C.
Instantaneous Forward Voltage (Max.): 1.0V.
One Cycle Surge Current: 25A.

Also supplied as JAN, JTX & JTXV.

1N645-1, 1N646-1 & 1N647-1.

FAST RECOVERY

(Trr) 150 ns (Max.)

Reverse Voltage: 100, 200, 400 & 500V.
Forward Current: 0.54 @ 55°C.

Reverse Current (Max.): 250nA @ 25°C.
Forward Voltage @ 0.5A, 25°C (Max.): 1.2V.
One Cycle Surge Current: 12.5A.

VERY FAST RECOVERY

(Trr) 100 ns (Max.)

Reverse Voltage: 100, 200, 400 & 500V.
Forward Current: 0.5A @ 55°C.

Reverse Current (Max.): 250nA @ 25°C.
Forward Voltage @ 0.5A, 25°C (Max.): 1.2V.
One Cycle Surge Current: 12.5A.

High Voltage
Mini-Metoxilite
stacks

Semtech’s Mini-Metoxilite stacks are the
smallest rectifier stacks in the industry to meet
or exceed environmental requirements of
current military and space programs.
Measuring only .215” long by .070” in diameter
(maximum body dimensions) these devices are
suitable for all applications where reliability

is the primary consideration.

Mini-Metoxilite stacks feature high
temperature metallurgically bonded junctions.
A coating of metal oxides is fused to the
assembly surfaces by proprietary design and
manufacturing techniques to guarantee the
maximum in hermanticity and ruggedness.

GENERAL PURPOSE

(Trr) 2us
= = a
Peak Inverse Voltage: 2000, 3000 & 4000V.
Average Rectified Current: 125MA @ 55°C.
Reverse Current (Max.): 100nA, 25°C.

One Cycle Surge Current: 7A.

Available also...

Peak Inverse Voltage: 5000 & 6000V.

Average Rectified Current: 5A @ 55°C.
Reverse Current (Max.): 250nA, 25°C.

One Cycle Surge Current: 5A.

FAST RECOVERY

(Trr) 250 ns (300 ns for 4000 to 6000V)

Peak Inverse Voltage: 1500, 2000, 2500 &
3000V.

Average Rectified Current: 100MA, 55°C.

Reverse Current (Max.): 100nA, 25°C.

One Cycle Surge: 5A.

Available also...

Peak Inverse Voltage: 4000, 5000 & 6000V.

Average Rectified Current: 50MA, 25°C.

Reverse Current (Max.): 250nA, 25°C.

One Cycle Surge: 2.5A.

“We're number 1 because we try harder”

f SEMTECH

CORPORATION

652 Mitchell Road, Newbury Park, California 91320
(805 498-2111, (213) 628-5392 / TWX: 910-336-1264

CHICAGO: (312) 352-3227

DALLAS: (214) 253-7644

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NEW JERSEY. (201) 654-4884

SAN FRANCISCO: (415) 328-8025

EUROPEAN SALES HDQ: Bourns AG Zug,
Switzerland (042) 232-242

104 Circle 104 on reader service card

Electronics/December 26, 1974

cuit generates a stairstep function with 10 equally
spaced, ascending steps of equal height, covering a total
range of either 5 to 12 or 50 to 120 millivolts, depending
on the setting of the range switch and potentiometer Rs.
The spacing between steps ranges from 1.6 seconds to 6
minutes, so that the total time for the complete staircase
is 16 s to 60 min, depending on the setting of the poten-
tiometer on the timer.

The circuit is based on the 555 timer configured as an
astable multivibrator. In this configuration, the timer’s
output remains low for about a third of the complete
cycle and high for the other two thirds; the length of the
cycle is determined by the value of the capacitor C, and
the setting of the 2.5-megohm potentiometer; the min-
imum length, as mentioned, is 1.6 s. The 10-kilohm re-
sistor R; is added to the potentiometer wiper so that the
total resistance tapers properly for particular instru-
ments that need it. The light-emitting diode is a visual
indicator that the timer is operating; it is on whenever
the time output is low.

Every negative-going transition from the timer incre-
ments the decade counter, which steps from 0 to 9 re-
peatedly and produces its outputs in binary-coded deci-
mal form, on lines Qa through Qp. These are translated
into the low state on the 10 individual outputs of the

BCD-to-decimal decoder/driver. Thus the 10 progres-
sively lower resistance values Rg are successively
coupled into the divider network Ra:Ru:Rs, so that the
voltage at the summing point S is a stairstep waveform,
developed across Ry. This waveform is fed to the device
under test through the isolation resistor, Ri.

The diagram shows a reference voltage V;, generated
by a mercury cell at 1.45 volts, but any convenient bat-
tery or power supply can be used, provided only that it
meets the requirements of the application and does not
overload the decoder. The decoder’s rating of 70 v and
7 milliamperes leaves plenty of latitude in the choice of
power sources.

The component values shown provide fixed 10% in-
crements in the stairstep, which is suitable for testing
most instruments. However, different values of resistors
at Rg will change the increments. In fact, variable resis-
tors can be used if the shape of the waveform is to be
frequently changed—for example, in testing recorder
inking systems, intermittent amplifiers or transmitters,
or worn mechanical servo assemblies. The basic wave-
form and a few variations are shown in Fig. 2. oO

Engineer's Notebook is a regular feature in Electronics. We invite readers to submit original
design shortcuts, calculation aids, measurement and test techniques, and other ideas for
saving engineering time or cost. We'll pay $50 for each item published.

Timer IC and photocell
can vary LED brightness

by F. E. Hinkle and Jim Edrington

Applied Research Laboratories, University of Texas, Austin

The relative brightness of a light-emitting-diode display
can be varied automatically by combining a cadmium-
sulfide photocell and a 555 timer into a pulse-width-
modulated astable multivibrator. Such variability is ob-
viously important in aircraft and automotive instrumen-
tation, as well as in calculators and digital watches, or
wherever ambient light conditions vary.

The circuit is the standard astable configuration for
the 555, with two modifications: the photocell replaces
one of the timing resistors, so that ambient light con-
trols the duty cycle of the astable oscillator; and diode
D, bypasses the 15-kilohm timing resistor during the
charging of the timing capacitor, increasing the max-
imum duty cycle of the 555 beyond the normal 50%
limit, and allowing the display to obtain full brightness.

As increasing ambient light level decreases the photo-
cell’s resistance, the timer’s duty cycle increases. The
varying duty cycle controls the length of time the dis-
play drivers are on, and this controls the brightness.

This circuit varies the duty cycle from less than 5% in
total darkness to more than 90% in sunlight. Manually
setting control R, establishes the minimum brightness
level in total darkness; if such adjustment is considered
unnecessary in a particular application, R; could be re-
placed with a fixed resistor. Oo

Electronics/December 26, 1974

AMBIENT
LIGHT

CdS
PHOTOCELL

TYPICAL LED DRIVE CIRCUITS

STROBE
LED
APs
Susy,

DIGITAL
SIGNALS

Pw
Uy:

Fader. Brightness of LED display is varied by using a photocell in
place of one timing resistor in a 555 timer, and bypassing the other
timing resistor to boost the timer’s maximum duty cycle. Result is
brighter display in sunlight, fainter in the dark.

105

106

Microprocessors
in a nutshell

Some connector
contacts are as good
as gold-plated

A resistor improves
that customized
voltage regulator

Engineer’s newsletter

Microprocessors are multiplying fast. Already at least 26—count ’em,
26—different models are available or will shortly become available in at
least sample quantities. Here’s the line-up: Intel has five models—two
4-bit sets, two 8-bit sets, and a bipolar slice job; National has five—
three IMPs, its GPC/P, and a single-chip 16-bit model; Rockwell has a
4-bit and an 8-bit p-channel set; RCA and Intersil have C-MOS versions;
Motorola has an 8-bit n-channel device, as do Fairchild, Signetics, Elec-
tronic Arrays, Microsystems International Ltd., and Toshiba, whose
product has a 12-bit word length; Mostek’s 8-bit device, Burroughs’
8-bit device, and Fairchild’s 4-bit CPU are all p-channel systems, and,
finally, Monolithic Memories, Raytheon, and Transitron all offer 4-bit
bipolar microprocessor sets.

The various overlapping and often confusing properties of these de-
vices are neatly summarized in a colorful wall-size Microprocessor
Scorecard published by Microcomputer Technique Inc. of Reston, Va.
The scorecard is bound into the September issue of the consulting com-
pany’s New Logic Notebook, along with a page-size black-and-white
reproduction. It costs $95 to subscribe to the notebook, which describes
all available microprocessors in detail and includes user design informa-
tion each.

With gold soaring in price, connector manufacturers are being forced
to economize on their use of it—or even find other metals for plating
contacts. For instance, Jermyn of San Francisco, Calif., has gone to a
tin-nickel plating that is said to reduce contact resistance by 20% and
cost by 10%. Apparently, contact oxidation is negligible, and there’s no
solder-joint embrittlement. Vector Electronic of Sylmar, Calif., on the
other hand, minimizes the amount of gold needed by using wrought
strips of gold only where device leads contact the terminal. The strips
are bonded to contacts of copper-nickel alloy and, being wrought, are
smoother and have a lower contact resistance than conventional gold
plate with its porous surface.

This page two weeks ago described how to make a three-terminal IC
voltage regulator operate at a voltage level other than its specified rat-
ing. And now Peter H. Helmers of Metapiana Enterprises in Rochester,
N.Y., has come up with an addition to the technique. The original idea
was simply to connect a zener diode between the regulator’s ground pin
and the actual power-supply ground in order to create a voltage pedes-
tal; since the zener voltage simply offsets the regulator’s normal output
voltage, the regulated output becomes the sum of the zener and the
regulator voltages.

But to assure that the zener remains insensitive to any variations in
temperature and load current, Helmers points out that it’s best to keep
it biased on by a substantial margin. A resistor connected between the
regulator’s output pin and the zener’s cathode is all that’s needed. For a
5-V regulator and a 4-V zener, the resistor should be about 270 ohms. The
reverse bias current flowing through the zener will then be around 25
mA, making the regulation of the offset output voltage about as good as
that of the regulator alone. —Laurence Altman

Electronics/December 26, 1974

...when you’re pinched for capacitor space

Way to go is with TRW X463UW metallized poly-
carbonate subminiatures. These capacitors give you
the size and weight savings you expect with a metal-
lized dielectric, p/us the improved electrical perform-
ance of polycarbonate.

For example. Less than 1.5% capacitance change
from —55°C through + 125°C (with no voltage de-
rating). Dissipation factor of less than 0.3% at
+ 25°C and 1 KHz. IR of 60,000 megohm x mfd min-
imum at + 25°C. Stability 2-3 times better than poly-
sulfone in humidity and shelf life tests.

Electronics/ December 26, 1974

Capacitances from .001 to 10.0 mfd (higher for spe-
cial applications)—in 50, 100, 200 and 400 vdc. Real
“‘problem solvers,”’ these—for precision circuitry de-
manding real stability combined with smallest pos-
sible size.

Write for catalog or application engineering assist-
ance. TRW Capacitors, an Electronic Components
Division of TRW, Inc., Box 1000, Ogallala, Neb.
69153. (308) 284-3611.

TRW capccitors

Circle 107 onreader service card

107

Crank up th ditterent waveiorms in continuous, rat the Model | ) averac
performance machine and you iggered or gated modes. Drop to
have 30 MHz at your mand. 3 ywHz and then run up the entire
Enough frequency é range in 1000 to | swe
situation you can name. discrete 10% s
f ijust rise
unique trapezoidal waveform.
The price is $1,095*. A bit
more than average. But a few min-
nift to any of nin sat the controls will convince you Circle 108 on reader service card

Thirty million
Hertz
puts you
in the driver's seat.

New products

Programable calculator costs $395

Shirt-pocket machine has total of 86 keyboard functions, 49 steps of

program memory, 20 addressable memories, and a 100-hour digital timer

by Michael J. Riezenman, New Products Editor

Like the HP-35 and -45 before it,
Hewlett-Packard’s HP-55 is a shirt-
pocket calculator and, like them at
their introduction, it has a $395
price tag. Unlike the earlier models,
the new machine is programable. It
has 49 steps of program memory,
plus branching, testing, and editing
capabilities. A built-in timer can
also store and recall up to 10
elapsed-time readings.

Unlike the more-expensive ($795)
HP-65, the model 55 has no provi-
sion for storing programs per-
manently on magnetic cards. When
the calculator is shut off, the pro-
gram is cleared from the memory,
and must be reentered to be used
again. However, the model 55 has
considerably more preprogramed
functions than any previous pocket
calculator: 86, compared with 51 for
the -65 and 44 for the -45. And the
model 55 has 20 addressable memo-
ries, 10 of which can be used to per-
form register arithmetic. Earlier H-P
pocket calculators had a maximum
of nine addressable memories.

Perhaps the most unusual feature
of the HP-5S is its inclusion of a dig-
ital timer—essentially a high-quality
digital stopwatch—which uses a
crystal-controlled oscillator to mea-
sure intervals as long as 100 hours
with a resolution of 0.01 second, and
a maximum error of +0.01%.

While the timer is running, the
user can acquire and store as many
as 10 splits (elapsed-time readings
within an event) simply by pushing
digit keys 0 through 9. After the
timer is stopped, the splits may be
recalled and manipulated like any
other data.

Like other H-P pocket calculators,
the HP-55 uses the RPN (reverse Pol-

Electronics/December 26, 1974

ish notation) logic sys-
tem with a four-
memory operational
stack of registers that
holds intermediate an-
swers and brings them
back when they are
needed in a calcu-
lation. It can work in
three trigonometric
modes: degrees, radi-
ans, and grads, and the
user can convert from
any one to any other.
The machine will add
and substract degrees,
minutes, and seconds
(DMS), and can convert
decimal degrees to
DMS and vice versa.
Single-keystroke po-
lar-to-rectangular and
rectangular-to-polar
conversions are also
included.

The HP-55’s statis-
tical functions, along
with its 20 addressable
memories, make pos-
sible the easy calcu-
lation of two-variable
mean and standard de-
viations, as well as the
performance of linear
regression, linear esti-
mate, and curve-plot-
ting calculations. Fur-
ther, the calculator can
solve a set of four
linear equations with
four unknowns.

Unlike the HP-45,
which is preprogramed
with constants for use
in English/metric con-
versions, the HP-55 ac-

Programable. Abie to store programs as long as 49 steps,
the $395 HP-55 is aimed at the gap between the HP-45 ad-
vanced scientific calculator, which costs $325, and the mag-
netic-card-programable HP-65, at $795.

CUSTOM ELECTRONICS’
MICA CAPACITORS:
short on DELIVERY
long on RELIABILITY

That describes our CMR type capacitor, ideal for “potted-in”
applications where minimum size and low per-unit cost are im-
portant. All our dielectric is screened before production to avoid
failure in the field.

TYPICAL UNITS: 1 to 10 Qty.
Installation No. Cap. WVDC L x*~x W_ xT Max. | Price

CMRIA102104K 0.1 uf 1,000 | 2.062" x 1.425” x 0.200" | $8.05

CMRIA302104K 0.1 wf | 3,000 | 2.562" x 1.620" 0.270" | 9.25
CMRIA103103K _ 0.01 nf | 10,000 | 2.562” x 1.800" x 0.350" | 8.80

FREE: Descriptive TechniTip,
includes Mica Sample. Write:

USTOM ELECTRONICS, Inc.

12 Browne St., Oneonta, N.Y. 13820
PH: (607) 432-3880 TWX: 510-241-8292

Circle 110 on reader service card

sa
mana i
Sil
h
1
Sil
ult

ru
Phil
mena
— Nl

Ceri)
—
mul)
quad
gui
mail
| da

National Semiconductors Ltd. can now offer you a complete
line of high efficiency, low current gallium phosphide LEDs.
A sampling of our LED lamps available include the panel-
mount MA 2300 series with its built-in lens/reflector system,
typically producing 2 mcd luminous intensity at 5 mA, the

MA 2400 series in the industry accepted panel-mount package,
the low profile MA 2600 series, the side-viewing MA 2700
series, and the MA 2800 series in a wide viewing plastic TO-18
package.

Red and green LEDs are generally available in optional clear,
clear diffused, tinted clear, or tinted diffused epoxy packages.

NSL can also offer you a complete line of photocells, photo-

diodes, phototransistors, optocouplers, optoelectronic arrays
and customized optoelectronic devices.

NATIONAL SEMICONDUCTORS LTD

331 Cornelia St., Plattsburgh, N.Y. 12901; Tel.: (518) 561-3160
2150 Ward St., Montreal, Que., H4M 1T7; Tel.: (514) 744-5507;
TWX 610-421-3362

110 Circle 142 on reader service card

New products

tually performs the conversions with
a single keystroke. The conversions
include: inches and millimeters, feet
and meters, U.S. gallons and liters,
pounds mass and kilograms, pounds
force and newtons, degrees faren-
heit and degrees celsius, and British
thermal units and joules.

For ease of editing, debugging,
and reviewing programs after they
are written, the model 55 has a
single-step key and a back-step key.
While in the program mode, the cal-
culator display shows a two-digit
line number (from 00 to 49) and a
two-digit keycode that tells what
command or function was keyed in
for that step. Thus, if the 24th step
were the reciprocal function, the dis-
play would show “24 13,” since the
reciprocal key is the third key from
the left in the first row of keys.

Branching is accomplished by the
HP-55 in one of three ways: by
means of an unconditional “GO TO”
command, or by means of two con-
ditional tests, ““x-Y” or “X is less
than or equal to Y” with the “Go
TO” command implied. By compari-
son, the HP-65 has 100 steps of pro-
gram memory and four conditional
branching tests.

The 15-digit light-emitting-diode
display can be formatted in a vari-
ety of ways at the user’s discretion.
It can show numbers in fixed-deci-
mal-point or scientific notation, and
can display from zero to nine places
after the decimal point, in either
mode, while the calculator main-
tains full accuracy internally, the
company says.

The HP-55 is equipped with a
special “Last X” storage register
that enables a user to correct an er-
ror in arithmetic or in number-entry
without having to start over in the
middle of a lengthy calculation. The
“Last X” register can also be used to
compute multiple operations of the
same argument.

The HP-55 weighs nine ounces
and comes with an ac power-line
adapter/recharger, an owner’s
guide, a quick-reference guide, and
a program-notation pad.

Inquiries Manager, Hewlett-Packard Co.,
1501 Page Mill Rd., Palo Alto, Calif. 94304
[338]

Electronics/December 26, 1974

New products

Pushing C-MOS

RAM up to 1

cuts price and power

kilobit

"
a -4t> an €t >
)

*
+>
+
=
*

Intersil device operates at 10 milliwatts with 10 nanowatts standby,
yet access is fast—400 nanoseconds at 5 volts, nearly 80 ns at 10 V

by Bernard Cole, San Francisco bureau manager

Combining 1,024-bit memory den-
sity with very low power consump-
tion is the idea behind the comple-
mentary-MOS random-access
memories now beginning to hit the
market. Intersil, early maker of
C-MOS memories, appears to be the
first to stock its distributors’ shelves
with production quantities of 1,024-
bit C-MOS RAMs.

The rush is on to C-MOS RAMs for
several reasons. Prime among them
is the need to retain memory con-
tents when the power goes off.
C-MOS is considered a better solu-
tion than auxiliary core or program-
able-read-only-memory storage be-
cause very little power is used when
the C-MOS memory system is not in
operation. A low-power battery is
all that is needed in most cases to
assure that the memory is never lost
[Electronics, Nov. 14, p- 42]. In addi-
tion, a C-MOS RAM is a static
memory, needing no refresh clocks
and only one power supply.

Intersil’s fully decoded and buf-
fered C-MOS silicon-gate RAM is or-
ganized as 1,024 words by | bit and
is designated the IM6508/IM65 18.

Electronics/December 26, 1974

According to Joseph J. Zabkar,
vice president of marketing at Inter-
sil, the speed of the device “‘betters
that of most n-channel 1-k RAMs
now on the market. And it’s not that
far away from bipolar speeds under
certain conditions.” Although access
time is specified at a maximum of
400 nanoseconds at 5 volts, the RAM
can be typically accessed at 200 ns.
And at 10 v it can be pushed as fast
as 80 ns.

This speed is achieved with oper-
ating power that, says Zabkar, can
only be termed phenomenal when
compared with either bipolar or n-
channel MOS memories. At 1 MHz,
power consumption of the IM6508,
he says, is less than 10 mw.

Standby. The other side of the
power story—and the one that
makes the new device so desirable
for low-power applications or where
nonvolatility is required—is
standby-power dissipation.

According to Shep Hume, Inter-
sil’s C-MOS design manager, this is
typically 10 nanowatts for the
IM6508. For most n-channel RAMs
operating in the 60- to 150-ns range,

standby-power-dissipation ratings
are between 30 and 60 mw. For
bipolars, the rating in the power-
down mode, when there is one, is
about 300 to 400 mw.

And for users of 1-k bipolar RAMs
who are getting nervous about
power consumption and are looking
for an alternative that can be easily
merged into their existing systems
without sacrificing too much speed,
Intersil has made both its 16-pin
version (IM6508) and 18-pin ver-
sion (IM6518) pin-for-pin compat-
ible with bipolar counterparts.

Other attractive features of the
memory, says Zabkar, include high
noise immunity, TTL compatibility
on inputs and output, a supply-volt-
age operating range from 3 to 7 V,
an on-chip address register, and an
operating range of 0°C to 70°C for
commercial units and -55°C to
+ 125°C for the military version.

The 100-piece price for the com-
mercial version of the IM6508/6518
is $62 each; the militarized version
is $98.75 each.

Intersil Inc., 10900 N. Tantau Ave., Cuper-
tino, Calif. 95014 [339]

111

New products

Components

Logic can drive
relay directly
Electromechanical device

handles 3-A loads, needs
only 5 mW of coil power

Relay manufacturers have been
rushing to bring out hybrid solid-
state relays as an answer to today’s
need for interfacing with popular
logic families. But the hybrid ver-
sions, which contain built-in ampli-
fiers, are expensive, and they often
require an external power supply to
bias the relay’s coil to just under-
neath its pickup point. Now, how-
ever, Potter & Brumfield has devel-
oped a highly sensitive electro-

mechanical relay that offers high-
power-handling capability, and it
can be driven directly by diode-
transistor, transistor-transistor,
emitter-coupled, or high-threshold
logic—without buffer networks.
Designated the RI1OS, this cur-
rent-sensitive relay comes in 1-, 2-,
3-, and 4-pole, double-throw ver-
sions that will switch resistive loads
from dry circuit up to 3 amperes
maximum at 28 volts dc. Maximum
power needed to activate the relay is
only 5 milliwatts per contact pair. A
single form C (single-pole, double-
throw) contact pair with a 1-kilohm
coil, for example, requires a max-
imum pickup current of 2.3 milliam-
peres, while four form C contacts
with a 1-kilohm coil require over
4.5. Coil resistances range from 500

112

ohms as high as 30 kilohms.

Drop-out is a minimum of 10% of
the actual pickup current. The ini-
tial breakdown voltage is rated at
500 V rms across the contact gaps.
Typical capacitance values are 2 pi-
cofarads contact to contact, as well
as coil to contacts; and 30 pF coil to
frame.

Mechanical contact-life expect-
ancy is 100 million operations, and
at full electrical load, the relay can
be cycled at least 100,000 times. The
R1OS is offered with printed-circuit
board, solder, or octal-type termi-
nations, and sockets are available. A
two-pole unit measures 1.5 inches
high by 0.735 in. wide by 0.95 in.
long.

The new relay is considerably
cheaper than its solid-state counter-
parts. Furthermore, because solid-
state relays are generally available
with only one form A (single-pole,
normally open) contact pair, addi-
tional systems savings can be
achieved by using multi-pole config-
urations of the R1OS. Finally, the
device’s low power consumption
makes it attractive even when a
logic interface is not required.

The new relay will be available
from distributor stock in January. It
will list from $4.60 to $5.60 in unit
quantities, depending on coil and
contact configuration.

Potter and Brumfield Division, AMF Inc.,
1200 E. Broadway, Princeton, Ind. 47670
[341]

Potentiometer-switch
modules have plastic parts

Four years ago, Allen-Bradley Co.
of Milwaukee introduced its modu-
lar series 70 potentiometers and
switches, which give the user mil-
lions of different possible combina-
tions from which to choose. Now AI-
len-Bradley is extending the MOD
POT line by adding its series 72
controls. These units, which have
plastic shafts and bushings for elec-
trical isolation, are intended for
high-voltage applications.

The potentiometers contain car-
bon-composition resistive elements,

ranging in value from 50 ohms to 10
megohms, with tolerances of +10%
or +20%. A full selection of comple-
mentary switches is available. A
single control can consist of one or
two sections.

Like the older series 70 controls,
the series 72 devices are % inch
square. Each section is rated at 0.5
watt, and operating temperature
range is -55°C to + 100°C. The new
MOD POT line is priced competi-
tively, and delivery time is six to
eight weeks.

Allen-Bradley is also introducing
a kit of its older series 70 units, to
become available in January. The
kit contains a selection of compo-
nents for building up to 20 controls.
Tools, fixtures, lubricants, and an
instruction manual are included in
the kit, which is supplied in a desk-
top container. Price will be approxi-
mately $95.

Allen-Bradley Co., Electronics Division, 1201
South Second St., Milwaukee, Wis. [342]

Relays occupy 1.2 cubic
inches, handle up to10A

The HC series of miniature relays
can occupy as little as 1.2 cubic
inches but have large current-

Electronics/December 26, 1974

New products

switching capabilities—10 amperes
for the single-pole, double-throw
unit, up to 7 A for the double-pole,
double-throw version, and up to5 A
for the four-pole, double-throw re-
lay. The four-pole double-throw
version is believed to be the only re-
lay of its kind. All the current rat-
ings are for resistive loads and for
voltages of 240 v ac. Coil voltages
range from 6 to 240 V ac or 6 to 110
Vv de. Plug-in, printed-circuit-board,
and direct chassis-mounting type
terminal arrangements are stan-
dard, as is a broad range of socket
mounts. The relays, which all have a
life expectancy in excess of 10° me-
chanical operations, are available
with hermetically sealed plastic
cases. Small-quantity prices range
from $2 to $6, depending upon con-
tact arrangement and voltage; deliv-
ery is from stock.

Arrow-M Corp., 250 Sheffield St., Mountain-
side, N. J. 07092 [343]

Multiple pc-board switches
can be custom-designed

Designed for use in avionics, indus-
trial, and instrumentation equip-
ment, a multiple rotary printed-cir-

cuit-board switch has metal edge-
mount terminals for easy insertion
into a pe motherboard, thus elimi-
nating expensive hand wiring. The
ganged switch can be custom-de-
signed to fit into limited space.
Switch choices include any circuitry
pattern desired, and as many wafer
decks as necessary, with up to 20 po-
sitions per deck. Resistors, diodes,
and similar components can be
added to switch boards to form
complete function modules.

Standard Grigsby Inc., 920 Rathbone Ave.,
Aurora, Ill. 60507 [345]

DIP resistor network
has 14, 16, or 18 pins

Unlike other thick-film resistor net-
works packaged in dual in-line
packages, Dale LDP networks are
available with 14 and 18 leads, as
well as in the standard 16-pin con-
figuration. They are offered in a

range of resistances from 10 ohms to
1 megohm and have a maximum
temperature coefficient of +250
parts per million per degree Celsius.
Tolerances as tight as 1% are avail-
able, as well as 2,5, 10 and 20%. Ra-
tio matching to within 0.5%, and
temperature-coefficient tracking to
within 50 ppm/*C are available on
special request. Power ratings, based
on a maximum per-resistor dissipa-
tion of 0.125 watt at 70°C, are 1 w
for 14-pin models, 1.125 w for 16-
pin units, and 1.25 w for the 18-pin

devices. The price of a typical LDP
(14 pins, 13 resistors, 10% tolerance)
is 68¢ each in lots of 1,000.

Dale Electronics Inc., Box 74, Norfolk, Neb.
68701 [344]

Push-button switches
have LED illumination

A series of push-button switches is
internally illuminated by a red
light-emitting diode. The LED,
which operates on 6 volts dc, has a
180° viewing angle and requires no
external dropping resistor because

one is built into the unit. The series
DUS switches are single-pole,
single-throw, normally open devices
with silver-plated brass terminals.
They are rated at 250 milliamperes,
30 watts maximum, under nonin-
ductive ac loads. Small-quantity
price is $5.

Switchcraft Inc., 5555 No. Elston Ave., Chi-
cago, Ill. 60630 [346]

Four-inch CRT is built for
low-cost oscilloscopes

A 4-inch-diameter round cathode-
ray tube has deflection-voltage re-
quirements that have purposely
been held within the capabilities of
ordinary transistor circuits. Its hori-
zontal sensitivity, for example, is 26
volts per centimeter at a final anode
voltage of 1,500 v. The gun of the
Brimar D10-230 produces a line
0.012 in. wide. Manufactured by
Thorn Radio Tubes and Valves
Ltd., the CRT has an over-all length
of 10.25 in. The useful screen area
measures 3.25 by 2.5 in.

The Inter-Technical Group Inc., P.O. Box
23, Irvington, N. Y. 10533 [348]

113

New products

Semiconductors
Microcomputers
emphasize I/O

Family of four systems
aimed at communications
and control applications

In some control and communi-
cations applications for micro-
computers, data processing capacity
is not nearly as important as in-
put/output efficiency. Scientific Mi-
cro Systems, a subsidiary of Corning
Glass Works, is taking aim at a
number of such applications with a
family of four systems called Micro-
Controllers.

Applications include control of
machine tools, intelligent instru-
ments, and peripherals and commu-
nications tasks such as data acquisi-
tion, switching, and concentration.

Each of the four microcomputers,
with modifications dependent on
specific applications, contains the
following: a microprocessor with an
instruction time of 300 nano-
seconds; up to 4,096 words of
ROM/PROM program storage; up to
256 bytes of RAM working storage;
and— most importantly—from 32 to
224 individually addressed 1/0 con-
nection points. Prices range from
about $385 in 100 quantities for the
basic System 10 MicroController to
$1,580 for the top-of-the-line fully
implemented System 40. Each pack-
age contains three hermetic ceramic
modules: the processor (containing
the program storage, a program
counter, an arithmetic logic unit,
and 12 registers having a repertoire
of eight instructions), the interface
vector (a program-addressable, buf-
fered connection between the con-
trolled elements of a user’s system
and the MicroController), and the
working storage module.

“What all this means,” says James
Geers, marketing vice president, “is
that control, status, and data lines of
user devices are immediately acces-
sible by the MicroController pro-

114

gram. There’s no speed penalty for
talking with the outside world be-
cause the input data is treated with
the same speed the internal registers
are operating at—300 nanoseconds.”

1/O data may be addressed in
various field sizes, from a single bit
up to 8 bits. This feature means,
Geers says, “that only those control
and status points of immediate in-
terest may be directly accessed with-
out masking.”

Scientific Micro Systems has also
checked out the architecture in a
MSI prototype, which will be made
available as a MicroController sim-
ulator for program modification and
control during MicroController sys-
tem debugging. Using a symbolic
programing language, the system
can be programed, says Geers, with
an assembler-level instruction set,
reducing concept-to-manufacturing
time as much as 50%.

Scientific Micro Systems, 520 Clyde Ave.,
Mountain View, Calif. 94043 [411]

1-gigahertz counter
built for logic uses

A counter from Motorola Semicon-
ductor is said to be the first 1-gi-
gahertz unit that is a true decade
counting unit and not merely a pre-
scaling divider. Designed for such
high-frequency-logic applications as
direct frequency synthesis, the
MC1696 biquinary decade counter
has a typical maximum frequency
of 1.2 GHz and a typical input sensi-
tivity of 800 millivolts peak to peak.
The new counter includes reset
and clock-enable inputs and divide-
by-10 and binary-coded decimal
outputs. The BCD outputs cannot
follow the 1-GHz input all the way
to the top of the frequency range,
but can be read a few nanoseconds
after the unit stops counting. The
real-time divide-by-10 output oper-
ates all the way up to 100 megahertz
with a duty cycle that is 60% high
and 40% low. The output is direct-
coupled, while the input is ac-
coupled and is internally biased.
Unlike some other 1-GHz divi-
ders, the MC1696 will not oscillate

without an input signal. Encapsu-
lated in a standard 16-pin ceramic
package, it requires supply voltages
of -7 and -5.2 v. Typical power dis-
sipation is 650 milliwatts. The de-
vice is priced at $89 each in lots of

Motorola Semiconductor Products Inc., Box
20912, Phoenix, Ariz. 85036 [412]

Microcomputer system
runs on one 5-V supply

Right on schedule [Electronics,
March 7, pp. 29-30], Motorola’s
M6800 microcomputer system,
which can operate from a single
5-volt supply, is moving out of the
sampling stage and into full produc-

tion. Five of the system components
are immediately available: the
MC6800 microprocessor unit (MPU)
itself, the MCM6810 128-word-by-
8-bit random-access memory, the
MCM6830 1,024-word-by-8-bit
read-only memory, the MC6820 pe-
ripheral interface adapter (PIA), and
the MC6860 modem. All are TTL-
compatible, n-channel MOS silicon-
gate devices. The PIA, which pro-
vides a means for interfacing pe-
ripheral equipment with the MPU,
contains six registers which are
available to the MPU via a bidirec-
tional 8-bit bus. The PIA, housed in
a 40-pin ceramic dual in-line pack-
age, costs $28 each in small quan-
tities. The single-chip modem,
which operates at 0 to 600 bits per
second, employs frequency-shift
keying for communicating over

Electronics/December 26, 1974

voice-grade telephone lines. Housed
in a 24-pin ceramic DIP, it has a
small-quantity price of $75 each.
Other small-quantity prices are:
$360 for the MPU, $35 for the ROM,
and $30.50 for the RAM. Actually,
the RAM comes in two versions: the
MCMé6810L, with a maximum ac-
cess time of 1 microsecond, costs
$30.50, and the MCM6810L-1,
rated at 600 nanoseconds, goes for
$37.50.

Technical Information Center, Motorola Inc.,
Semiconductor Products Division, P. O. Box
20294, Phoenix, Ariz. 85036 [413] .

LED displays
go orange

Orange light-emitting-diode dis-
plays have joined the ranks of red,
yellow, and green units as standard
commercial products. Designated
the MAN3600 series, Monsanto’s
orange displays are 0.3-inch devices
that are electrically and mechani-
cally compatible with other stan-
dard displays. Prices at the 1,000-
quantity level are also the same—
$2.20 each. The MAN3600 units
radiate at a wavelength of 630
nanometers (red is 650 nm, and yel-
low is 590 nm), and have a typical
luminous intensity of 1,200 micro-
candelas at a current of 10 milliam-
peres per segment.

Monsanto Commercial Products Co., 3400
Hillview Ave., Palo Alto, Calif. 94304 [414]

Circuit demodulates a-m,
fm, or SSB signals

Capable of acting as a synchronous
detector for amplitude-modulated
signals, a quadrature detector for
frequency modulation, and a prod-

Electronics/December 26, 1974

NO ONE

Customizes Switches Like CDI
Nor Has a More Complete Line

THUMBWHEEL ROTARY
SWITCHES SWITCHES

a Snap-in, snap-out

= modules in seconds,
eliminating
downtime.

Tabet Pat.

8 2841660,
2971066,
i 3015000,

2956131,
2988607.

PUSHBUTTON
SWITCHES

ry

hostile environments.

Mounts on
Ya" centers,
retrofits
most panel
openings
for miniature Miniature
thumbwheel add/subtract units
switches. retrofit most minithumb-
wheel switch panel openings.

CDI earns its reputation every day for Consistently
High Quality, Consistently Good Delivery.

CHICAGO DYNAMIC INDUSTRIES, INC.

PRECISION PRODUCTS DIVISION
1725 Diversey Blvd., Chicago, Illinois 60614
Phone: 312, 935-4600

Circle 115 on reader service card

Power Line Disturbance Monitor

a

Then decide.

Transient risetime response: 0.2us
Monitors single or three phase power Audio and visual alarms
Transient amplitudes +50 to 1000V Time and event recorder
50-60 Hz or 400-415-441 Hz Quartz crystal clock
Event registers: Solid state circuitry
undervoltage and overvoltage Portable and lightweight
under/overfrequency
low-magnitude transients
high-magnitude transients

Virtually maintenance-free

Programmed Power Inc.

141 Jefferson Drive
Menlo Park, CA 94025
(415) 323-8454

Circle 143 on reader service card

Easy to use: no attendant needed

You may petneed U.P.S. Monitor and evaluate.

Wide voltage range: 100-480 VAC

Subsidiary of Franklin Electric ©

115

The Gardner-Denver Wire Preparation

fae Unit delivers wire cut to length, stripped
3 one end or both, in any quantity. For
Snag low or high volume users. Just set a dial,

flick a switch, and profit from more

SEE WHAT than a decade of our experience in
GARDNER-DENVER processing all types of insulated wire.
This automated machine can be used
IS DOING NOW.

as an on-line system with a Gardner-
Denver Terminal Locator or other
semi-automatic wiring equipment, or as
a bench unit to process bulk wire. We
also have a machine to produce

Profit by our Bolsie (ait and ata eninge
experience in Division, Grand Haven, Michigan 49417
solving wire

preparation problems

GARDNER-DENVER

116 Circle 116 on reader service card Electronics/December 26, 1974

New products

uct detector—with a built-in oscilla-
tor—for single-sideband and contin-
uous-wave transmissions, the SL624
also contains a variable-gain audio
amplifier. Intended for use in multi-
mode receivers, the integrated cir-
cuit may be switched from one
mode to another. Or, since it costs
only $4.44 in hundreds, it may be
cheaper to use two of them to re-
duce switching costs. Usable at fre-
quencies up to 30 megahertz, the
unit operates with supply voltages
from 9 to 12 volts and draws about
20 milliamperes.

Plessey Semiconductors, 1674 McGaw
Ave., Santa Ana, Calif. 92705 [416]

Static shift register
uses n-channel technology

Claimed to be the industry’s first
n-channel static shift register, the
IM7733 is a 1,024-bit silicon-gate,
enhancement-mode MOS device.
Fully compatible with DTL and TTL
levels, the shift register requires
only one 5-volt supply and no exter-
nal pull-up circuitry. The unit’s
push-pull output has a fanout rating
of two TTL loads. Typical clock-to-
output delay is 100 nanoseconds.
The IM7733 is available in commer-
cial and military temperature
ranges, and in plastic, ceramic, and
TO-100 packages. In quantities of
100 to 999, the plastic and TO-100
packaged commercial (0° to 75°)
units cost $9.90, while the ceramic-
packaged military (-55° to 125°C)
devices cost $16.80. Other combina-
tions fall in between.

Intersil Inc., 10900 North Tantau Ave., Cu-
pertino, Calif. 95014 [415]

10-kV opto-isolator
is only 0.5-inch long

The OPI 110 optically coupled
isolator measures 0.5 inch long by
0.3 in. in diameter, and has an in-
put-to-output isolation-voltage rat-
ing of 10 kilovolts. Consisting of an
npn planar silicon phototransistor
coupled to a high-efficiency gallium-

Electronics/December 26, 1974

arsenide infrared-emitting diode,
the device has a typical current-
transfer ratio of 40% with an input
current of 10 milliamperes. Typical
switching time is four microseconds.
Price of the OPI 110, in lots of 1,000
is $2.90; delivery is from stock.
Leads can be formed to permit use
in automatic insertion equipment.
Optron Inc., 1201 Tappan Circle, Carrollton,
Texas 75006 [417]

Darlington pairs have
built-in diode protection

A series of three monolithic high-
voltage, high-current Darlington
transistor arrays features open-col-
lector outputs, and integral suppres-
sion diodes for protection against
inductive loads. Each of the devices
consists of seven silicon npn Dar-
lington pairs on a single monolithic
substrate. The type ULN-2001A is a
general-purpose array intended for
use with a wide variety of logic fam-
ilies including DTL, TTL,-p-MOs and
C-MOS. The type ULN-2002A is spe-
cifically designed to work with 14-to
25-volt p-MOS devices. Each input
has a zener diode and a resistor in
series to limit the input current to a
safe level. The type ULN-2003A has
a resistor in series with the base of
each Darlington pair, and thus al-
lows direct connection to TTL or C-
MOS devices operating from 5-Vv
supplies. In all cases, the individual
pairs have maximum current ratings
of 500 milliamperes; however, out-
puts may be connected in parallel to
drive heavier loads. The absolute
maximum collector-emitter output
voltage rating of all the devices is 50
V.

Technical Literature Service, Sprague Elec-
tric Co., 315 Marshall St., North Adams,
Mass. 01247 [418]

Circle 117 onreader service card

SEE WHAT

GARDNER-DENVER
IS DOING NOW.

saat!
it’s wrapped.

In less than one second, your operators
make permanent, gas-tight electrical
connections with Gardner-Denver
Wire-Wrap* Tools. Tool weighs only
13% ounces. Handles 18 through 32
gauge wire. Send for Bulletin 14-1

on Gardner-Denver Wire-Wrap tools,
bits, and sleeves. Gardner-Denver
Company, Grand Haven Division,
Grand Haven, Michigan 49417.

*Wire-Wrap is a registered
Trademark of Gardner-Denver Company.

GARDNER
DENVER

117

New products

Data handling
Signal processor
is fast, flexible

Two versatile types can be
directed by host computer
or operate on their own

The design of signal processors usu-
ally requires a tradeoff between
speed and flexibility—but not with
two systems developed by Signal
Processing Systems Inc. According
to the company, the systems—one
twice as fast as the other—can pro-
cess signals at high speeds, yet both
have the programing flexibility of
general-purpose computers.

The SPS-41 can compute a fast
Fourier transform of 1,024 complex
data points in less than 8.7 millisec-
onds, and it can filter digitized sig-
nal samples at a 500-kilohertz rate.
The SPS-81 completes the same FFT
in 4.2 ms. Both processors can be
programed either to perform under
the command of a host computer or
to operate alone. Both can perform
linear predictive coding of speech
waveforms, process radar and sonar
signals, demodulate digital commu-
nication signals, and enhance pho-
tographic and television images.

Functional specialization is the
key to improved flexibility, says
president Joseph R. Fisher. The sps
units have two major subunits: an
input/output processor and an
arithmetic processor, permitting sig-
nal processing to proceed con-
currently with computation.

The 1/O processor is a 16-bit
stored-program unit that controls
independent data transfers in vari-
ous channels in accordance with as-
signed priorities. The approach
resembles that used by multi-
programed computers, except that
they switch from program to pro-
gram under software control, and
the SPS unit is hard-wired.

The arithmetic processor is fur-
ther divided into two sections, arith-
metic and index. The index section

118

keeps track of the sequence of sig-
nal-processing operations to be per-
formed and delegates the actual ma-
nipulation of data to the arithmetic
section. The arithmetic section is at-
tached to the index section, per-
forming real and complex addition,
multiplication and other operations
serially by byte; it contains a
scratchpad memory and a read-only
table of complex exponentials—the
multipliers required by the fast Fou-
rier transform or an equivalent al-
gorithm.

Each section of the processor has
its own separate program, data and
register file memories, which typi-
cally contain 256 words each and
are used as cache memories. This is
the first commercial application of
cache memory in a signal processor,
according to the company. The
basic memory with add-on capacity
has a range of 4 to 128 kilowords.

The SPS-41 is priced at $31,000;
the faster SPS-81 costs $50,000, in-
cluding interfacing to customers’
present computers.

Signal Processing Systems Inc., 223 Cres-
cent St., Waltham, Mass. 02154 [361]

Intelligent terminal has 3
built-in microprocessors

A user-programable intelligent ter-
minal and display system provides
high-speed communications and si-
multaneous multiple input/output
processing. Called the model OP-1
and designed for the OEM market,
the terminal contains three micro-
processors that provide high-speed
input/output capabilities. The three
microprocessors in the low-cost,
stand-alone terminal are a central
processor, a display processor and
an input/output unit. With the CPU,
the OP-1 can be programed by the
user for applications such as reser-
vations, inventory, ticketing, sales,
and typesetting. The system can op-
erate with a variety of host comput-
ers. Optional device controllers
available for field or factory instal-
lation include a synchronous com-
munications controller, a 3M tape
cartridge for controlling four tape

transports, a disk controller and a
printer controller. The basic OP-1
terminal system is priced at $2,285
in quantities of 100. Delivery time is
90 days.

Ontel Corp., 3 Fairchild Cr., Plainview, N.Y.
11803 [363]

One-board data-acquisition
system is Nova-compatible

Made to plug directly into the main-
frame of a Nova, Supernova, Nova
800, or Nova 1200 minicomputer,
the model 500-DGC system is a
data-acquisition and control system
built on a single 15-by-15-inch
printed-circuit board. The 12-bit
system is available with a variety of
multiplexers for handling from eight
differential-input channels up to 64
single-ended inputs. Depending
upon the number and type of in-
puts, basic system prices range from
$1,800 to $2,370. The system in-
cludes a regulated, isolated dc-to-dce
converter which gets its input power
from the host computer, a fast (100
kilohertz) 12-bit analog-to-digital

converter, and a program interrupt
interface. Extra-cost options include
a programable-gain amplifier and
anywhere from one to four 12-bit

Electronics/December 26, 1974

digital-to-analog converters for pro-
viding analog outputs for control or
display. The $250 programable-gain
option includes automatic amplifier
zeroing at no extra Cost.

Adac Corp., 29B Cummings Park, Woburn,
Mass. 01801 [364]

Data-acquisition system
uses programable calculator

Scanning up to 520 channels under
calculator control, measuring dc, ac
and ohms at up to four readings per
second, and calculating results on-
line or off-line, the model 3050B
data-acquisition system from Hew-
lett-Packard sells in the range from
$14,000 to $25,000. With a scanner
coupled to the H-P model 3490 dig-
ital multimeter, the system measures
dc in five ranges from 100 millivolts
to 200 volts with a resolution of 1
microvolt. Ac is measured in four
ranges from 1 v to 200 V with 10-uV
resolution over the range from 20
hertz to 100 kilohertz, and resistance
is measured from 100 ohms to 10
megohms with 1-milliohm resolu-
tion. Data logging is under control
of an H-P 9820A, 9821A, or 9830A
programable calculator. A common-
carrier interface bus is available as
an option.

Inquiries Manager, Hewlett-Packard Com-
pany, 1501 Page Mill Rd., Palo Alto, Calif.
94304 [365]

Interface designed for use
with Honeywell minis

A flexible data-line controller is ca-
pable of interfacing virtually any
RS-232C-compatible unit with Hon-
eywell minicomputers. The model
S100 asynchronous interface unit is
designed specifically for use with
H316, DDP416 and DDP516 mini-
computers. The unit allows interface
with line printers, CRTs, modems,
and teletypewriters, including mul-
tiple stations, without need for addi-
tional equipment. Each $100 can be
customized for the specific user re-
quirement. Models are available

Electronics/December 26, 1974

with from one to eight channels.
Plug-in-card construction is used
and the interface is 7 inches high by
19 in. wide by 17% in. deep. Price is
$3,500 to $5,000, depending on
number of channels and configura-
tion. Delivery time is eight weeks.
Stritec Inc., 5352 Sterling Center Dr., West-
lake Village, Calif. 91361 [366]

Tape formatter handles
up to eight drives

A tape formatter designated the
model 86008 consists of a single
printed-circuit card and will handle
up to eight Quantex 600 drives. It
accepts 8-bit parallel bytes and con-
verts them to the required phase-en-
coded serial format. The preamble,
postamble, and cyclic-redundancy-
check character are internally gener-
ated in accordance with the pro-
posed ANSI specification during
write operations. In reading data,
the preamble, postamble, and CRCC
are automatically removed. A CRC
pulse output is provided when an
error is detected. Price is $570 each.
Qantex, 200 Terminal Dr., Plainview, N.Y.
11803 [367]

NOVA/DCC-116
General Purpose
Interface Board

BASIC BOARD HAS: @ Multiple device
selection. @ Interrupt request and
acknowledge logic. @ Interrupt mask
and I/O signal selection. @ Space for
105 sockets or IC’s (will take 24 & 4O pin,
as well as 14 & 16 pin devices). @ Plugs
directly into a single slot of any NOVA or
DCC-116 computer chassis. @ Provides
for mounting 2 ribbon cable edge
connectors. @ Extractor kit & board stiffner.
OPTIONS INCLUDE: @ Four 16 bit |/O
registers (with byte packing and un-
packing). @ Data channel connection
(includes data channel synchronization
and request logic, zero word count
detection (OVFL indicator).

BASIC BOARD PRICE IS $385.
Delivery from stock.
MD MDB Systems, Inc.,
8
Orange, CA 92667
(714) 639-7238

981 N. Main St.,
Circle 119 onreader service card

UD-876M

Uni-directional
Dynamic Microphone

The UD-876M microphone is a unidirec-
tional cardioid dynamic microphone in-
tended for the most demanding needs of
professional musicians. The dynamic car-

tridge used in this microphone has been
designed with the needs of the performer
on stage in mind.

The wind screen provides exceptional re-
jection of both breath blast and wind
sounds.

@ For catdlog, write to:

PRIMO MICROPHONE INC.

2468 DELTA LANE, ELK GROVE VILLAGE
ILLINOIS 60007, U.S.A. TEL: 312-595-1022
TELEX: 28-3474 PRIMO MUS ELGR

PRIMO COMPANY LIMITED
6-25-1 MURE, MITAKA-SHI, TOKYO, JAPAN
TEL: 0422-43-3121~9

TELEX: 2822-326 PRIMO J

Circle 144 on reader service card 119

New products

Packaging & production

Marking 16,000
DIPs per hour
Curing oven, an integral part

of printing system, uses
1,000°F focused air blast

Each of the billions of dual in-line
packages produced each year must
have two or three lines of informa-
tion printed on it. But printing the
part number and other information
on the DIP body is more than a
simple inking process. Two addi-
tional steps are involved—handling
the units in extremely large quan-
tities and curing the epoxy-based
ink after printing.

Machines are now capable of

printing on as many as 15,000 DIPs
per hour, but the manufacturer
must still remove a plastic carrying-
stick full of printed Dips from his
machine, put them in heat-resistant
aluminum sticks, cure the inks in an
oven, and then repackage the DIPs
in plastic sticks for shipment. Cur-
ing requires from one to one-and-a-

120

half hours beyond the printing and
drying stages of the conventional
marking process.

Now Markem has introduced a
DIP printer, the U1228, which can
feed, print, and cure 16,000 DIPs per
hour. All of these steps are accom-
plished by one machine that elimi-
nates the extra curing time needed
by conventional DIP printers.
Markem’s system consists basically
of a feeder/handler, a rotary print-
ing mechanism, and a curing oven.

In addition to eliminating the
time and expense of going from
aluminum sticks for curing and
back to plastic sticks for shipping,
the Markem printer eliminates the
need for large space-consuming
ovens.

The printer is top-loaded and
DIPs are fed through gravity flow to
the rotary print station. As they ap-
proach the station, each piece is me-
chanically held for exact registra-
tion. The basic machine has a
semiautomatic feeder that has a
throughput of 8,000 to 10,000 Dips
per hour. An automatic carousel-
type feeder (shown in photo), avail-
able as an option, increases
throughput of the machine to 16,000
DIPs per hour.

For quick legend changes, the
U1228’s rotary printer can use ei-
ther loose type or a ceramic printing
plate from Markem. As a third
choice, a manufacturer can produce
his own plates with Markem’s
model 452 platemaker, which con-
sists of an exposure unit and a wash-
out unit, both of tabletop size. The
model 452 can produce a finished
printing plate from a negative in 15
minutes.

Once printed, each component is
individually moved on a conveyor
to the integral curing oven. This en-
closure is 8 inches long and cures a
DIP in 3 seconds. During this inter-
val, a 1,000°F air blast is focused on
the DIP, and excess heat is sucked
away by an exhaust. Because of this
quick heat/cool cycle and the
U1228’s conveyor transfer of the
Dips from the printing head to the
oven, it 1s not necessary to use
aluminum sticks for handling. After

curing, the U1228 machine auto-
matically reloads the DIPs into plastic
sticks.

Depending on options, the U1228
is priced at about $18,000 with a se-
miautomatic feeder, and at about
$25,000 with a fully automatic ver-
sion. The platemaker costs $2,000,
and blank plates are priced at 75
cents each.

Markem Corp., 150 Congress St., Keene,
N.H. 03431 [391]

Augat introduces boards
for Schottky TTL, ECL
Two series of packaging boards—

one for extremely fast emitter-
coupled logic, the other for

Schottky-clamped transistor-transis-
tor logic—are designed for auto-

matic wrapped-wire inter-
connection. The ECL boards (shown)
are designed to accommodate a
single in-line package (SIP) of termi-
nating resistors in between the dual
in-line logic packages. The Schottky
TTL board has an extended copper
supply-voltage plane sandwiched
between two ground planes. Each
DIP is connected to both ground
planes, and decoupling-capacitor
zones are established for each DIP
location. The result is an increase in
distributed board capacitance of as
much as 400% over currently used
interconnection panels, with a con-
sequent reduction of high-frequency
noise. The TTL board is available in
sizes that accommodate from 30 to
180 DIPs, in multiples of 30, at prices
that range from $1.29 to $2.40 per
DIP pattern, depending upon vari-
ations and quantity. The ECL boards

Electronics/December 26, 1974

We improved —
our micro resist.

New KODAK Micro Resist 747
is the purest, most stringently con-
trolled resist we’ve ever made.

It’s filtered to a value of 0.5
micrometer, and there are less than
10 parts per million of metal ions.
(Less than three parts per million
each of sodium, lithium, potassium,
tin, or gold.) Viscosity and solids are
also closely controlled.

And there are processing solu-

tions of equally high quality: KODAK
Micro Resist Developer, Thinner,
and Rinse. All of which help you get
more uniform coatings and better
process reliability. And that means
economy.

There’s convenience, as well.
This negative-working resist comes
in four ready-to-use viscosity
grades: 30, 45, 60, and 110 centi-
stokes.

We couldnt

improve our offer.

Technical assistance.

We'd be pleased to share our experience in
microelectronics with you. As a start, why not send
for the comprehensive six-page data sheet on
KODAK Micro Resist 747? Or have a

representative demonstrate it for you.
Either way, just use the coupon.

Eastman Kodak Company

| Dept. 412-L, Rochester, N.Y. 14650

[_] Please have a representative demonstrate
KODAK Micro Resist 747.

[_] Please send detailed information.

| Name

: Title.

| Company

|
| Address

| City.
|
I
|
'

Electronics/December 26, 1974

State. Zip

| For information on sales outside the U.S. and Canada,
contact the International Photographic Division, Eastman
Kodak Company, Rochester, N. Y. 14650, U.S.A.

Circle 121 onreader service card

121

New products

maintain the same form factor as
the company’s older ECL series.
Prices on the ECL boards vary from
$1.83 to $3.39 per pattern.

Augat Inc., 33 Perry Ave., Attleboro, Mass.
02703 [399]

Multilayer card extenders
have up to 216 signal lines

A family of multilayer card exten-
ders is available in sizes large
enough to handle 216 signal lines.
The five-layer panels contain two
ground planes to prevent undesired
coupling of high-frequency signals,
and they have provision for either
connecting the ground planes for
electrical conduction or leaving
them unconnected for shielding be-

423 os = =
ont £7 8% 1)

tween signal leads. The extenders
cost $70 each in quantities of 10 or
more; delivery is from stock.

Mupac Corp., 646 Summer St., Brockton,
Mass. 02402 [395]

Wrapped-wire system made
for metric dimensions

A family of high-density electronic
packaging cards and associated
hardware for wrapped-wire inter-
connection of integrated circuits has
a basic card size of 100 by 160 mil-
limeters. Called Euro-Cards, the
line includes preassembled 14- and
16-pin socket cards with distributed
supply-voltage and ground connec-
tions—both with or without connec-
tors. Copper-clad, blank, and two
types of general-purpose cards are
also available. Three versions of

122

“M” series Euro-Racks are offered
to house the Euro-Cards. The sys-
tem uses 64-pin, two-piece, high-
reliability pe card connectors orga-
nized as two rows of 32 pins each.
Assemblies are available with or
without mounted back-plane con-
nectors, and the manufacturer can
also provide fabrication and wire-
wrapping services.

Cambridge Thermionic Corp., 445 Concord
Ave., Cambridge, Mass. 02138 [396]

Gold inlays cut
connector costs

By bonding wrought-gold strips
only to the contact points on cop-
per-nickel terminals, Vector Elec-
tronic Co. has produced a pair of
24-pin IC sockets that offer the per-
formance of gold-plated units at
slightly more than the price of con-
ventional nickel-plated devices. Ac-
tually, the 50-microinch surface fin-
ish of the wrought-gold inlays yields
lower contact resistances than does
the porous surface of conventional
gold plating. The sockets are made
of glass-filled nylon, and measure
1.28 inches long by 0.7 in. wide. The
model R724 is 0.28 in. high and has
0.69-in. leads for wrapped-wire ter-
mination. The R724-2 is 0.15 in.
high, and has 0.15-in. leads for sol-
dering. The R724 is priced at $1.50,
while the R724-2 goes for 88 cents—

both for 100 to 500 units. Delivery is
from stock.

Vector Electronic Co. Inc., 12460 Gladstone
Ave., Sylmar, Calif. 91342 [397]

Temperature testing of chips
and wafers goes automatic

A programable temperature-control
system for use in automatic systems
that measure the temperature char-
acteristics of semiconductor wafers
and chips covers the range from -60
to +200°C. The model TP350
ThermoChuck system accepts dig-
ital commands to change its tem-
perature from a computer or a semi-
conductor test system. In addition,
three temperatures can be set on
front-panel thumbwheel switches
and selected by push buttons. The
unit provides both a front-panel
digital display and digital output
data on the chuck temperature. The
heating-cooling system is self-con-
tained and provides temperatures
that are stable to within 0.5° and re-
peatable to within 1°C. Maximum
error is 1% of range. Delivery time
for the TP350 system is 14 to 16
weeks.

Temptronic Corp., 40 Glen Ave., Newton,
Mass. 02159 [393]

Tin-nickel plating lowers
DIP contact resistance

Two dual in-line sockets—an eight-
and a 14-pin unit—have Nasglo-
plated contacts. This tin-nickel plat-
ing is said to be extremely hard and
to offer a contact resistance some
20% below that of conventional gold
plating. Other advantages over gold
plating are said to be a 10% cost re-
duction, and the avoidance of the
embrittlement problems associated
with gold-plated contacts. Price of
the eight-pin model A23-5034 is 40
cents in hundreds, while the 14-pin
A23-5028 is priced at 42 cents in
similar quantities. Delivery is from
stock.

Jermyn, 712 Montgomery St., San Fran-
cisco, Calif. 94111 [398]

Electronics/December 26, 1974

New from

A/D CONVERTER Sree D/A CONVERTER
12 Bits/40 usec 12 Bits/5 wsec

Unique Low-Noise Successive- ; : 1 \ Gain Stability Less Than
Approximation Design Qe | 10 ppm/°C, Offset Stability
Fully Self-Contained with : ; 4 3 ppm/°C
Guaranteed No Missing Codes ‘ ; = Fully Monotonic Over 0°C to 70°C
Over 0° to 70°C ‘

Pin Configuration Conforms to

Pin Configuration Conforms to Popular Industry Standard

Popular Industry Standard

Quantities 1-9 $ 79.00
Quantities 1-9... $129.00

There are several variations of the : To place your order now,
above models also available featuring call Gene Lavielle (415) 686-6660 or

Resolutions from 8 to 14 Bits TWX 910-481-9477
Speeds to 3jusec (ADC) and 300 nsec (DAC)

Extended Temperature and Military Performance weltex - 940 DETROIT AVE. CONCORD, CA 94518
All Pin-Interchangeable! = “es (415) 686-6660 TWX 910-481-9477

Circle 123 onreader service card

enemeaie

\ ANNOUNCING...7THE
\ LR INNOVATOR SERIES

ANEW WAY TO TEACH
re ELECTRONICS

The new LR Innovator Series,
from E&L Instruments, rep-
resents a radically new ap-
proach to the teaching of
electronics. Check these
features.

The student encounters
hardware on the very
first day of laboratory in-
struction. The software
(seven hundred pages —
over 90 experiments) is de-

signed for both formal ratrochon 6 or for self- programmed learning. Interstate Pulse Generators

The student is initially introduced to digital rather than analog electron-

ics, and is taught through the use of the actual integrated circuit chips. have Constant Duty Cycle

The student is directed toward the use of manufacturer's specifications

with the goal of making him independent and self-sufficient in his Engineers aro aways surprised Whe they select vies Consta
approach to creating more sophisticated digital electronic circuits. Duty Cycle mode and adjust the width control on an :
The hardware has been designed “open ended’. As electronics tech- Interstate Series 20 Pulse Generator — they get an instant pulse.
nology changes and evolves, the student can obtain and use the It's “countdown-free,’ too.

exciting new integrated circuit chips. — For the whole story on Interstate’s Instant Pulsers, call John
Write today for full details of this exciting new system. Norburg collect. He'll send you Interstate’s Series 20 Pulse

& | Generator catalog — instantly.

E&L INSTRUMENTS, INCORPORATED (CC 2s INTERSTATE
61 First Street, Derby, Conn. 06418 Phone (744) 772-2814 CORPORATION |
Subsidiary of A-T-O inc. :

Circle 145 on reader service card Dept. 7000, Box 3117, Anaheim, California 92803

Circle 146 on reader service card > TWX U.S.A. 910-591-1197 TELEX U.S.A. 655443 & 655419.

@ CLASSIFIED ADVERTISING
@ BUSINESS OPPORTUNITIES
@ USED OR SURPLUS EQUIPMENT

RF-PACKAGES— MICROWAVE SYSTEMS

WORLD’S LARGEST RADAR & MICROWAVE INVENTORY

AUTOTRACK ANTENNA
SCR-584 RADAR SYSTEM

360 deg AZ 210 deg EL. | mil. ac-
curacy. Missile vel. accel. and slew
rates. Amplidyne conrol. Handle up
to 20 ft. dish. Compl. control chassis
ALSO in stock 10 cm. van mounted
rad. system. Conical scan. PPI. 6 ft
dish. 300 pg. instr. bk. on radar $25

RF SOURCES
CW: 300-535K Hz 500W; 2-30MHz 3KW; 4-21 MHz 40KW;
24-350MHz. LOOW; 385-58SMHz IKW; 750-985MHz
10KW; .95-8.8GHz 150W; |-1.5GHz 110W; 1.7-2.4GHz
10KW; 4.4-SGHz 1KW; 8.8-11GHz 200W. Many more

UHF: 1 Megawatt 210-225MHz Syusec 180 PPS: 14KW
400-420M Hz .0002DC; 1KW 400-700M Hz .002DC
BAND: 1KW 1-1.5GHz .1DC: 500KW |.2-1.35GHz
2usec 400PPS

=

S BAND: 1KW 2.4-26GHz .75usec 1200PPS: 250KW
2.7-3.3GHzZ 8usec 1600PPS: S5OOKW 2.7-3.1GHz
8usec 1600PPS: 1 Megawatt 2.7-2.9GHz lysec

1200PPS: 5 Megawatts 2.75-2.85GHz 2.Susec 400PPS
BAND: 225KW 6275-6575MHz .4usec 680PPS; 250KW
5.4-5.8GHz .Susec 680PPS: 1 Megawatt 6GHz lusec

iz)

1000PPS
X BAND: 100W 9.2-9.5GHz .Susec 1000PPS: 1 KW
8.9-9.4GHz .00IDC: 65KW 8.5-9.6GHz .001DC

250K W 8.5-9.6GHz .0013DC: 400KW 9.1 GHz I .8usec
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Ku-K BAND: 50KW
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3 MW LINE Output 39 KV 75 A. .25/1 ws 500 PPS

10 MW LINE 76 KV 135A, 2.5 ps 350 PPS

7MW LINE 17 KV I000 A. 2-5 us 150-2000 PPS

SEND FOR FREE 24 PG. CATALOG

16.4-16.6GHz .00IDC: 135KW
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RADAR SYSTEMS
K BAND MONOPULSE 40KW E-34
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X BAND WEATHER/SEARCH 250KW AN/CPS-9
X BAND AIRBORNE TRACKER 50KW B-47
X BAND MOBILE TRACKER 40KW AN/MPQ-29
X BAND WEATHER/SEARCH 40KW AN/SPN-5
X BAND TRANSPONDER 1OOW AN/DPN-62
C BAND HGT. FDR. 5MW FPS-26; 1MW TPS-37
C BAND SEARCH 285KW AN/SPS-5B/D
S BAND HEIGHT FINDER 5MW AN/FPS-6
S BAND SEARCH COHERENT 1MW AN/FPS-18
S BAND ACQUISITION 1MW NIKE AJAX/HERC
S BAND TRACKER 10’ DISH 500KW AN/MPQ-18
S BAND MORTAR LOCATOR 250K W AN/MPQ-10A
S BAND TRACKER 250KW AN/MPS-9
L BAND SEARCH 40’ ANTENNA 500KW AN/FPS-75
L BAND SEARCH 500KW AN/TPS-1D/GSS-1
UHF SEARCH 1MW TPS-28
DRONE CONTROL eT EMS
UHF COMMAND SYSTEM AN/URW-1
X BAND DATA LINK AN/UPW-1
X BAND TRACKER AN/MPQ-29
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AN/GPG-1 SKYSWEEP TRACKER

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& auto. track. In stock for imm. del. Entire sys. 6'x3’x9'
9A

MOD IV HI-RES MONOPULSE TRACKER
Instrumentation radar: freq. 8.5-9.6 GHz, Pwr
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Radio
R Research
}3@ Instrument
Co., Inc.

3 QUINCY ST., NORWALK, CONN. 06850
(203) 853-2600

CIRCLE 951 ON READER SERVICE CARD

FREE CATALOG

HARD-TO-FIND PRECISION TOOLS

Lists more than 2000 items—pliers ,
tweezers, wire strippers, vacuum systems,

FIBERCOM

FIBER OPTIC
COMMUNICATION LINKS
Analog - Digital
Bandwidths To 50MHz

RADIATION DEVICES CO. PO BOX 8450
BALTIMORE, MD. 21234, 301-665-2764

CIRCLE 952 ON READER SERVICE CARD

POTTING APPLICATORS
MANUAL OR AIR OPERATED

2ce 6ce 12cec 30cc
FOR POTTING, ENCAPSULATING ETC.

PHILIP FISHMAN CO., INC.

7 CAMERON ST WELLESLEY, MASS.02181
CIRCLE 953 ON READER SERVICE CARD

ZIP CODE

MOVES THE MAIL

relay tools, optical equipment, tool kits
and cases. Also includes ten pages of
useful "Tool Tips" to aid in tool selection,

@

JENSEN TOOLS
4117 N. 44th Street, Phoenix, Ariz. 85018

CIRCLE 954 ON READER SERVICE CARD

HERMETIC SEALING

CONNECTORS @ HEADERS # DETONATORS
GLASS/CERAMIC TO MF TAL # SINCE 1959

DETORONICS CORPORATION

10660 E. RUSH ¢S. EL MONTE, CA 91733
(213) 579-7130 © TWX 910-587-3436

CIRCLE 956 ON READER SERVICE CARD

Q. Whom do | contact or call to re-
new my classified ad or make
corrections?

A. Write Electronics, Class. Adv
P.O. Box 900, NY, NY
(212) 997-6585
or 6586. Give full company
name, size of ad, & date or dates
it is scheduled to appear

Dept.,
10020 or call:

SAME DAY SHIPMENT
Minis & Peripherals

PRINTERS
Some “BRAND NEW”

DATA PRODUCTS

2440— 7OOLPM
2470—1250 LPM.$9500

MOHAWK DATA SCIENCES

4320—300 LPM
4330—380LPM

CONTROL DATA CORP.

9322—200 LPM . $2500
9352—600 LPM

ALSO
CENTRONICS, POTTER, CDC
A. B. DICK, IBM, HIS, UNIVAC
(617) 261-1100
Send for Free Report ‘Maintenance of Computers®

AMERICAN USED COMPUTER CORP.
0. Box 68, Kenmore Sta., Boston, MA 02215
ber COMPUTER DEALERS ASSOCIATION

IRCLE 957 ON READER SERVICE CARD

EMPLOYMENT

OPPORTUNITIES

POSITIONS VACANT

Five-year research-rank position in cosmic-
ray physics. The physicist will work on a
highly versatile study of high energy had-
ronic cross sections and ultra-high-energy
astrophysics in an experiment observing
the air scintillation of extensive air
showers up to 10°! eV. Candidates should
be capable of mature design of an experi-
ment involving optics, mechanical struc-
tures, particle detection techniques, photon
counting, state-of-the-art electronics, and
the development of a sophisticated data-
handling system using a PDP 11/45. Ap-
plications should be sent to Peter Gibbs,
chairman, Department of Physics, Uni-
versity of Utah, Salt Lake City, Utah
84112 Telephone (801) 581-7468. An
equal opportunity employer.

Post-Doctoral position in Cosmic Ray
Physics. The Physicist will work on build-
ing and operating apparatus designed to
make a prescision measurement of the
cosmic ray anistotropy near | TeV.
Candidates should be experienced in high
energy experimental techniques, particu-
larly in the use of minicomputers. Ap-
plications should be sent to Peter Gibbs,
Chairman, Department of Physics, Uni-
versity of Utah, Salt Lake City, Utah
84112 Telephone (801) 581-7468.

New literature

Industry opportunities. A free 18-
page report entitled “Structural
Changes and New Opportunities in
the Electronics Industry” by Ray
Stata, president of Analog Devices,
Inc., is available from the company
at Route 1 Industrial Park, Nor-
wood, Mass. 02062. The report
analyzes the industry’s growth over
the past decade with an eye on its
consequences for the future. Circle
421 on reader service card.

Solder and flux guide. Published in
handy slide-rule form, a guide from
Kester Solder, 4201 Wrightwood
Ave., Chicago, Ill. 60639 (Attention
Mack Haraburd), aids in the selec-
tion of solders and fluxes. The guide
gives flux choices for 22 metals, and
lists 36 solder alloys. [422]

Thermistor testing. Six-page techni-
cal data sheet No. TD-2A, entitled
“Considerations in the Testing of
Thermistors,” covers such subjects
as resistance measurement, unbal-
anced thermocouple-voltage errors,
and self-heating errors. The data
sheet can be obtained from Fenwal
Electronics, 63 Fountain St., Fram-
ingham, Mass 01701. [423]

Photoresist filtration. The impor-
tance of keeping photoresist solu-
tions free of particles, and how to do
it is elucidated in bulletin AB502,
published by Millipore Corp., Bed-
ford, Mass. 01730. [424].

Relay guide. A guide to the com-
pany’s line of general-purpose re-
lays, including electrical and me-
chanical data on 79 relays in 13
basic configurations has been pub-
lished by North American Philips
Controls Corp., Frederick, Md.
21701. [425]

Timesharing with Basic. A 16-page
brochure describing features of the
company’s model 100 and model
200 Advanced Basic timesharing
systems can be obtained from In-
quiries Manager, Hewlett-Packard
Co., 1501 Page Mill Rd., Palo Alto,
Calif. 94304. The systems make use
of the H-P 3000 minicomputer fam-
ily. [426]

Electronics/December 26, 1974

Parallel
Entry
Printer

Prints 3 lines per

second, 11 character
locations per

column with a

capacity up to 16 columns.

Print mechanism is small (5%”’ x 10” x 8”).

Options available: Serial or parallel BDC interface

Power supply

Attractive case

With the addition of calculator logic, it becomes

our “‘Intelligent Printer’.

Write for catalog of
Addmaster computer peripherals.

si ADDMASTER

* CORPORATION

416 Junipero Serra Drive ¢

ge

San Gabriel, California 91776

“ROCKLANE

a) =
ce) @) A) » oD wa
s Z “3

ait 4
>

- &

BEST r FREQUENCY rireles

* 10 KHz to 39.999999 MHz Range
* 1 Hz Resolution throughout range .
* LED Display of Frequency
* Full Programmability & Fast
Switching 1 us rece
* High Spectral Purity: cs i ase worse
* High Stability: =2::3%/‘<oenona:
* 1 v RMS Output (+13 cm)

. Amplitude Modulation:

+ Auxillary TTL Square-wave
Output

+ ASCII, Calculator and
Minicomputer Interface Options

SOME APPLICATIONS:
# Communication systems alignment and calibration.
* Precision sweep testing of High Q networks.
* Frequency agile automatic systems.
* Programmable local oscillator.

For immediate intormation on how Rockland can meet your specific application and delivery requirements — call our local rep or Dave Kohn directly at

ROCKLAND

ROCKLAND SYSTEMS CORPORATION 230 W. Nyack Rd.,W. Nyack, N.Y. 10994 e (914) 623-6666

Circle 147 on reader service card 125

Electronics advertisers

Abbott Transistor Labs, Inc. 8
Technical Advertising Agency
Addmaster Corporation 125
Mich Associates
* AEG Telefunken SIE
Werbeagentur Dr. Kuhl GmbH
* AEROCOM 48E
Jacster Enterprises, Inc.
* Alcatel 14E
* Ampex 15E
Cassey and Hull Ltd.
* Anritsu Electric Co., Ltd. 140
Diamond Agency Co., Ltd.
Ballantine Laboratories, Inc. 128
MLF Graphics
= Beckman Instruments, Inc.,
Helipot Division 50
N.W. Ayer/Jorgenson/MacDonaid, Inc
Burroughs Corporation 9
Conti Advertising
* Carlo Erba 12E

MVC Pubblicitas & Marketing

® Centralab Electronics DWv.,
Globe-Union, Inc.
Action Communicators

Cherry Electrical Products Corp. 6
Kolb/Tookey and Associates, Inc.

®& Chicago Dynamic Industries 115
Burton Browne Advertising
= Clairex Corporation 4th Cover
Marquardt & Roche
= Continental lalties Corporation 127
Robert A. Paul
CTS Corporation 35
Reincke, Meyer & Finn, Inc.
= Custom Electronics, Inc. 110
Laux Advertising, Inc.
= Dana Laboratories 54
Dailey & Associates
Data Industri 49
Holter, Young & Rubicam AS
Digital Equipment Corporation 100-101

Creamer, Trowbridge, Case & Basford, Inc

* Ducati Elettrotechica Microfarad 16E
Studio Busoli Gastone

Eastman Kodak Co.—GMD
GD Photofabrication-Microelectronic 121
Rumrill-Hoyt, Inc.

EL Instruments, Inc. 120
Langeler-Stevens, Incorporated

Electromask, Inc. 2
JMR Advertising

Electronics Circulation

= Electro Scientific Industries 63
Commark Group, Inc.

Esterline Angus,
A Unit of Esterline Corporattion 57
Odiorne Industrial Advertising, Inc.

* Fabbrica Italiana

Sane Marelli S.p.A. 39E
Publicor
= Fluke Manufacturing Co., John 33
Bonfield Associates
FMC Corporation—
Semiconductor Products Operation 86

DeSales Advertising, Inc.

Gardner-Denver Co. 116-117

Buchen Advertising, Inc

Garrett Corp. 53
J. Walter Thompson Company

= General Electric Co.
Semiconductor Products Department 22
Advertising & Sales
Promotion Syracuse Operation

* General Instrument Europe S.p.A. 20E
Studio Sigismondi
General Magnetics 3rd Cover
McCarthy /Scelba /DeBiasi
Advertising Agency, Inc.
* General Radio 9E

Grad Associates

+ Guardian Electric
Manufacturing Company 15
Kolb/Tookey and Associates, Inc.

= Hewlett-Packard
Richardson, Seigle, Rolfs & McCoy, Inc.

94-95

126

December 26, 1974

® Hewlett-Packard
Richardson, Seigle, Rolfs & McCoy, Inc.

* Industrial & Scientific Conference
Burlingame Grossman, Inc.

* Industrie Bitossi s.a.s.
Studio Ruini

* Israel Section
International Media

* Israel Export Institute

* Tadiran

* Supaco Engineering Supply Co., Ltd.
* Microelectronics Ltd.

* Tedea

* Sharnoa Electronics

* Eltek Ltd.

* Elco

* Micronics Ltd.

* International Media

* Elbit Computers Ltd.

* Vishay Israel Ltd.

* Koor’s Electronics Wing

* Israel Export Institute

Interdata
Shaw-Elliott Advertising

® Interstate Electronics Corp.
Chris Art Studio, Inc.

= Johnson Company, E F
Martin Williams Advertising

= Kepco inc.
Weiss Advertising

* LTT,

= Matsushita Electric Trading Co.,Ltd. ~
Hakuhodo, Inc.

MDB Systems, Inc.
The Sunshine Group

Monroe, The Calculator Company
Division of Litton Industries
Hartel Catlano & Associates, Inc

* Motorola Senticonductor
Graham & Gillies Limited

= National Semiconductors Limited
Griener Harries Maclean, Ltd.

* Nuovo Pignone Attivita Pignone Sud
Linea Spn

Ofakim Transformers Limited
International Media

Panasonic
Ogilvy & Mather, Inc

* Philips Elcoma
Intermarco Nederland

* Philips Elcoma
Brockies Communications

* Philips Electrologica
Intermarco Nederland

* Philips Industries
‘az Dias

* Philips N V. Pit/T & M Division
Brockies Communications Systems SA

Photocircults
Ries Cappiello Colwell, Inc.

+ Piher International Ltd.
Scott MacTaggart Advertising

Primo Co., Ltd.
General Advertising Agency, Inc

* Procond S.p.A.
Quadragono

Programmed Power, Inc.
Moser & Associates

* RCA Electronic Components
Al Paul Lefton Company, Inc.

46E

21E

22E-23E

24E

24E

24E

25E

25E

26E

26E

26E

27E

27E

28E-29E

30E
10-11

123

56

18E
50E-51E

119

85

35E

110

56E

30

31

19E

37E

45E, 32E

2E-3E

46

12-13

53

119

44E

115

15

* RCA Ltd. 42E-43E
Marsteller, Ltd.
RCA-—Solid State Division 60-61
Marsteller, Inc.
= RCL Electronics, Inc. 14
Morvay Advertising Agency
= Rockland Systems 125
Rolf Johnsen, Inc.
* Rohde & Schwarz 1E, 11E
* RTC 17E
Feldman Calleux Associes
* S.ALF.T. 55E
U.N.C.C.
Scientific Micro Systems Inc.,
Sub of Corning Glass Works 64
Durel Advertising
Schauer Manufacturing Corp. 32
Nolan, Keelor & Stites
S.D.S.A. 34
Public Service
* Seimart 13E
CPM Studio
Semtech Corporation ‘ 104
Adgraphix Corporation
* Sescosem 41E
Bazaine Publicite
* Siemens A.G. Munich _ 44
Linder Presse Union GmbH 9
SGS—ATES International 17-18
McCann-Erickson
+ Sharp Electronics Corporation 46
SSC&B Advertising
+ Siemens Corp.-Electronic Systems Division,
Computest Products 44
JL Associates
* Sodeco-SAIA 6E
PR Service
® Spectrol Electronics Corporation Second Cover
JMRinc.
* Sprague 4E-5E
Perez Publicite
Sprague Electric Company 7
Harry P. Bridge Company
Systron Donner Concord Instruments 38
Fred Schott & Associates
* TEAC Corp. 53E
Dentsu Advertising Limited
@ Tektronix, Inc. 27,29
Tektronix Advertising
Teledyne Philbrick 41-43
Ingalls Associates
Thomson CSF 98
Bazaine Publicite
= TRW/Capacitors 107
Gray & Rogers, Inc.
= Unitrode Corporation 21
Culver Advertising, Inc.
* Wandel und Goltermann 52E
Werbeagentur
Wavetek San Diego 108
Chapman Michetti Advertising
Wima, Westermann 16
Oliver-Beckmann GmbH
* Yokogawa Electric Works, Ltd. 49E
General Advertising Agency, Inc.
Zeltex 123
Zeltex Advertising Agency
* La ZincoceLere S.p.A 47E

Studio Dr. Giuliano Blei

Classified & Employment Advertising
F. J. Eberle, Manager 212-997-2557

EQUIPMENT (Used or Surplus New) For Sale
American Used Computer Corporation .
Detoronics Corporation .......

Fishman, P. Co..........
Jensen Tools & Alloys ..
Radiation Devices Company .
Radio Research Instrument Company

= For more information on complete product line see adver-
tisement in the latest Electronics Buyer’s Guide

* Advertisers in Electronics International

} Advertisers in Electronics domestic edition

Electronics/December 26, 1974

Advertising Sales Staff

Pierre J. Braudé New York [212] 997-3468
Director of Marketing

Atlanta, Ga. 30309: Joseph Lane
100 Colony Square, 1175 Peachtree St., N.E.
[404] 892-2868

Boston, Mass. 02116: James R. Pierce
607 Boylston St. [617] 262-1160

Chicago, Ill. 60611:

645 North Michigan Avenue
Robert W. Bartlett (312) 751-3739
Paul W. Reiss (312) 751-3738

Cleveland, Ohio 44113: William J. Boyle
(716] 586-5040

Dallas, Texas 75201: Charies G. Hubbard
2001 Bryant Tower, Suite 1070
(214] 742-1747

Denver, Colo. 80202: Harry B. Doyle, Jr
Tower Bidg., 1700 Broadway
[303] 266-3863

Detroit, Michigan 48202: Robert W. Bartlett
1400 Fisher Bidg.
[313] 873-7410

Houston, Texas 77002: Charles G. Hubbard
Dresser Tower, 601 Jefferson St., [713] 224-8381

Los Angeles, Calif. 90010: Robert J. Rielly
Bradley K. Jones, 3200 Wilshire Blvd., South Tower
[213] 487-1160

New York, N.Y, 10020

1221 Avenue of the Americas
Warren H. Gardner [212] 997-3617
Michael J. Stoller [212] 997-3616

Philadelphia, Pa. 19102: Warren H. Gardner
Three Parkway,
[212] 997-3617

Pittsburgh, Pa. 15222: Warren H. Gardner
4 Gateway Center, [212] 997-3617

Rochester, N.Y. 14534: William J. Boyle
9 Greylock Ridge, Pittsford, N.Y
[716] 586-5040

San Francisco, Calif. 94111: Don Farris
Robert J. Rielly, 425 Battery Street,
[415] 362-4600

Paris: Alain Offergeld
17 Rue-Georges Bizet, 75 Paris 16, France
Tel: 720-73-01

Geneva: Alain Offergeld
1 rue du Temple, Geneva, Switzerland
Tel: 32-35-63

United Kingdom & Scandinavia: Keith Mantle
Tel: 01-493-1451, 34 Dover Street, London W1

Milan: Robert Saide!
1 via Baracchini, Italy Phone 86-90-656

Brussels: Alain Offergeld
23 Chaussee de Wavre
Brussels 1040, Belgium
Tel: 13-73-95

Frankturt/ Main: Fritz Krusebecker
Liebigstrasse 27c, Germany
Phone 72 01 81

Tokyo: Tatsumi Katagiri, McGraw-Hill
Publications Overseas Corporation,
Kasumigaseki Building 2-5, 3-chome,
Kasumigaseki, Chiyoda-Ku, Tokyo, Japan
[581] 9811

Australasia: Warren E. Ball, IPO Box 5106,
Tokyo, Japan
Business Department

Stephen R. Weiss, Manager
[212] 997-2044

Thomas M. Egan,
Production Manager [212] 997-3140

Carol Gallagher
Assistant Production Manager [212] 997-2045

Dorothy Carter, Contracts and Billings
[212] 997-2908

Frances Vallone, Reader Service Manager
[212] 997-6057
Electronics Buyers’ Guide

F. Werner, Associate Publisher
[212] 997-3139

Regina Hera, Directory Manager
(212] 997-2544

Electronics/December 26, 1974

for as little as seB0

without soldering

Introducing QT SOCKETS™ and BUS STRIPS, a flexible

UNIQUE NEW
SNAP/LOCK DESIGN

FREE SELECTION GUIDE

new breadboarding system with unique SNAP/LOCK
that lets you expand or contract your project

by simply snapping together as many QTs as

you need. Test ICs, transistors, resistors,capacitors

#22 AWG hook up wire—no soldering needed!
Reuse QTs again and again. No more short-
ing or burnt fingers! No special patch cords!

senee t, and more. Just plug in, connect with solid
ee eee ei

ettee *)

eeeee »

eetee ¥

eeeee

gett’ available in 10 different sizes, starting
ese* as low as $3 for QT Sockets, $2 for Bus Strips.

Write or phone today for application and product photos, drawings,
specs, socket sizes and ordering information.

Continental Specialties Corp 44 Kendall St., New Haven, CT Tel 203/624-3103

Presenting
in your
corner:

THE
BOXER!

Why mess around when you
can have the ELECTRONICS
BOXER clean up your
copies—keep them in top
condition.

And, it’s easy and
inexpensive to keep the
ELECTRONICS BOXER in
your corner. Just complete
the coupon and mail. Your
order will be processed
immediately, postpaid.

| ELECTRONICS BOXER
| Jesse Jones Box Corporation

| 2250 E. Butler St., Philadelphia, Pa. 19137

| Please send me: (] boxes @ $4.25 each;
CJ 3 boxes @ $12.00; [1] 6 boxes @ $22.00

My check or money order is enclosed.

Circle 127 onreader service card

127

when it comes to communications...

H

ECI designs, manufactures and supplies Electronic equipment and systems.
@ Airfield Towers Control Systems. eMobile (Shelters) and Static Communications Systems.
eVersatile Intercommunication Equipment-commercial, military , marine, airborne.

ELECTRONICS CORPORATION OF ISRAEL LTD.

88 Giborei Israel Street, Tel-Aviv, Israel. memb
Tel: 255181 (5lines)Cables: Elcoris Telex: 03-3578 CLAL Group

Shifrin & Naaman

Circle 128 on reader service card _

The Ballantine
512 MHz DIGITAL
COUNTER

The 5700A Frequency Counter. Range 10 Hz
to more than 512 MHz. Nine digit display. |
Carrier measurements to 1 Hz resolution in
2 seconds of keyed transmitter time. Selective |
signal tone checks to 0.1 Hz resolution.
Sensitivity 10 mV rms with AGC. Stability

3/107/month. 3/109/day optional.

e HIGHEST SENSITIVITY if you think that heart disease and stroke
e BEST RESOLUTION hit only the other fellow’s family.

e FASTEST COUNT RATE |

¢ LOWEST PRICE $995 | GIVE... so more will lve

@ Peo | | HEART FUND
aL |

Ballantine Laboratories, Inc.
P.O. Box 97, Boonton, New Jersey 07005

Contributed by the Publisher

201-335-0900, TWX 710-987-8380

128 Circle 148 on reader service card Electronics/December 26, 1974